Tuesday, December 28, 2010

These are a few of my favorite things...

I love preparing for Christmas, but this year, I did not start preparing my heart until the week before. On December 18th all of a sudden, it dawned on me that Christmas was in one week. Here are some things that we did in that week that helped me prepare. First, we went and caroled with the (Mark) Kroekers and the Beckmans. We were very zealous carolers and sang our favorite Christmas songs in the car. One elderly bachelor said, "your singing and this pumpkin bread is Christmas to me." His gratefulness blessed me as well. Then, we went caroling again on the 21st with our home school choir.At one nursing home a lady began singing along. I love caroling and would love to do it all year round.

Now for the really different activity. Mrs. (Lyle) Kroeker invited my mom and I to go to a Christmas service at her home church. It's a little Swedish church in New Gottland. However, the catch was it started at 6 am on Christmas morning! Although it was early my curiosity got the better of me. We had to leave at 5:15 am because the church was a half hour away. When we arrived, I was amazed how chipper people could be in the morning. I personally, didn't talk much. We sang hymns, heard the Christmas story and a short sermon on the name Immanuel. Then, the choir sang an old Swedish carol in Swedish. I enjoyed listening to them. Now, most of you know that I don't get up that early without some compensation. After the service, we had breakfast in the fellowship hall. I had four different kinds of cinnamon rolls and some delicious minty hot chocolate. Because of our visit, we are now declared half swede. The service helped me start Christmas with the proper attitude.

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