Christmas Traditions

We were blessed by the annual visit of Mike and Jerilyn Malone with "Aunt" Sheila Lisman. I don't know when their annual visit started but they are as consistent as Christmas. I taught the Malone's children, Jenny and Mark, in the South High vocal music department as well as in musical theatre productions. This first picture shows from left to right Aunt Sheila, Mike and Jerilyn with Joshua Grace and Velda in the foreground.

Velda opens a gift while Jerilyn looks on.

Grace looks at the book "Because of Winn-Dixie" from Aunt Sheila. We also have a little bit of history with her. Years ago we painted her house in Hutchison. We visited at least one other time to affect some repairs. It was enjoyable to stay in her house while we worked.

Here's a picture of all three. Sheila and Jerilyn are sisters.

That same evening another tradition of sorts was continued. For years, again I don't know how many, we have received a monetary gift anonymously. In the past it was received by mail in the form of cash with a note. This time none other than Santa himself appears on our porch. He handed me a box of Hickory Farms cheese and sausage with a red envelope. Inside the envelope was a monetary gift in cash with a note. I feel that it was especially meaningful that it was delivered by a person dressed as Santa Claus because the historical Nicholas was a saint dedicated to giving.

Sound

What do you look forward to at Christmas? I love seeing the lights, reindeer, santa claus, snowmen, christmas trees...etc. I also love hearing the sounds of snow falling, bells ringing and of course Christmas Carols. We went caroling with our home school choir. There were about 37 of us including six alumni. We went to three nursing homes and one home. Throughout the evening we saw people's faces light up to hear our singing including the nurses. One nurse went running after Michelle Dennis to make sure she was okay after getting her wisdom teeth out. The people didn't really care what carols we sang just that we were there was great for them. Once I was walking with the Newcomer girls and we got separated from the group. Nara started up with "The First Noel" and we all joined in for the first verse and the chorus. On the start of the second verse I mainly hummed and put in a word or two. As Nara began the third verse Jenna said, "the end." Not many of us knew all five verses. Several times the back group of carolers got confused and started singing a different song than the front group. We eventually figured it out. I don't think anybody minded much. Knowing my personality does anyone have any guesses of my favorite Christmas Carol? Have a very Merry Merry Merry Christmas!

Duet

Sharon Luka is a blind friend of ours. Lately she has been coming to dinner on the night of my Winter Concert and attending it with my family. This last time while waiting she and Grace decided to play a duet. Below is a link to a video of the event. It's not perfect yet it's precious.

Duet

Let It...

Snow! Even though we live "way up north" in Kansas we usually don't start getting snow until January or February. I'm usually okay with that and have gotten into a schedule. Well you can imagine my consternation when it snowed in October! Then to my relief that ground hadn't frozen yet and it didn't stick. Then last Sunday we heard we were supposed to get ten inches of snow and to my delight we got eight! Now you must understand that snow in October is not fun but snow is supposed to come in December so I'm excited. I've already got hit by several snowballs but paid them back in return. My cats weren't so excited. The kittens reaction to their first snow was hilarious. I called them and they came running toward me. Suddenly they stopped short and seemed confused. One began shaking off it's feet and the other sniffed tentatively. They wanted to come to breakfast but they refused to take another step. Just when I was getting ready to go rescue them they came up with Plan B. Walk on the bricks bordering our yard where the snow wasn't as deep. Have fun in the snow and don't be like the kittens!

A Psalm of Thanksgiving

I praise thee Lord for your many blessings and misfortunes; for my loving family and the special relationships you have given us, for a warm home with heat that is available during our season of cold, for the challenges of broken appliances that help me realize how much I take these marvelous tools for granted day in and day out, for your wonderful variety of creation that often puts me in awe of your majesty and yet at other times makes me wonder why did you create these things Lord? Yes I will praise thee O Lord my God with all of my heart I will glorify thou name forever! Our Thanksgiving celebration has some unique twists this year. First of all we slept in a bit then prepared to go the Applebees' to serve Thanksgiving dinner hosted by our local Salvation Army for anyone who desires a home-cooked meal for the day. All of the preparations and servers are volunteers from the community. Meals are also delivered for any who are unable to come to the restaurant. It was an enjoyable time for all. Later we got together with friends for snacks and games. We celebrated again later on Saturday with worship and fellowship and of course the full feast again with the Reilly/Tieman families which was a great time of fun and fellowship

A hectic Christmas

"Oh no! Look at the calendar dear,

It's that time of year.

Lights, Christmas parties, shopping,

It really keeps you hopping

The kids are more impatient

And they are in the Christmas Pageant!

What is Christmas all about?

Are we putting Jesus out?

He is the true meaning of Christmas!

P.S. I'll talk about that more in the second poem.

Our Tract Record

I have watched a DVD series hosted by street evangelist Ray Comfort and actor Kirk Cameron (star of Fireproof) produced by their organization The Way of the Master. It challenged me to get more involved in evangelism. The Yoders, friends of ours who live near Hutchison, KS, related to us how they passed out gospel tracts to people waiting for a parade to start. Salina had an upcoming parade called The Parade of Lights. It is the Saturday before Thanksgiving and commemorates the city's Christmas season by turning on the Christmas lights downtown. I decided to take my family there and pass out tracts to the people waiting for the parade to start. Joyce Songer, a member of our church joined us. We started where the parade was supposed to end and worked our way towards the beginning for 30 minutes until the parade started. Velda, Michaela and Joyce were a team on the east side of the street while Joshua, Grace and I were on the west side. The other team made it farther than ours because I kept running into people I knew who wanted to visit. Otherwise we felt good about our efforts to dabble in spreading the gospel. I was especially pleased with Joshua. Our son who is normally reticent in public (especially with people he first meets) handed out all his tracks but one. I stopped passing out tracks to watch him in amazement. Click on the link to view a video of him reenacting what he shared on the streets.

Joshua's Tract Record

Hello everyone. Long time no post. If you were a follower of our family blog but are no longer I completely understand. As the representative of the family I can safely say we are all very apologetic about our lack of posts and we will try to work on it. My brother and I are teaching a Good News Club by ourselves for the first time this year. Keeping track of all the records and reports has really made me work on the quality of thoroughness. Here are some memorable things that have happened after the last two months.

I am teaching a Bible lesson on Abraham getting tested by God to sacrifice Isaac. Being a little dramatic I raise my hand as I say, "Abraham raised his knife to kill his son Isaac." One girl couldn't stand it any longer and covered her eyes with her hands.

Another time the children are listening as they hear that if they believe in Jesus they can be saved. One girl wildly raises her hand and when called on says this, "That right first you believe on Jesus and then you can get bap-u-tized. Bap-u-tism is when you they put you under the water. My pastor bap-u-tized me. Here I stopped her short and thankfully was able to keep a straight face. She was so proud that she knew what bap-u-tism was when all the other kids were clueless. But I don't think her explanation helped.

Then just today when I am giving the invitation at the end of the lesson an interesting scene took place before my eyes. A boy sitting at the end of the row began having slight trouble keeping his eyes open. Then it became more noticeable when his head began bobbing up and down. As I finished my invitation for salvation his eyes closed for the last time and they didn't open. Joshua was sitting right next to him and didn't even notice. I signaled to him to wake the boy up. He turned and a sinister smile crossed his face. He raised his hands and slowly moved them towards the boy. The kids were all very quiet. Then in a flash his hands came down on the boy's shoulders and he jerked awake. He was really too groggy to be very startled. Don't worry he didn't bring them slamming down either.

Ah, how I absolutely love working with kids! May you be spurred on to do the same. We have really enjoyed the children this year. Every class is an adventure!

My Own Account

Just in case you guys have read Joshua's post I believe mine will give a different view point. Upon entering the garage this morning to feed the cats I immediately smelled a disgusting smell which seemed to come from the back of the garage. Because our kittens in the garage I thought perhaps our mother cat had pooped back there. All I found were our mewing kittens. So I decided to feed the birds. When I reached my hand into the bag I noticed that it was wet and then I saw a hairy opossum's face right on top of our seeds. I was so startled that a yell erupted from me and I fled into the house. The smell was so awful that I immediately assumed it was dead and heralded the news to my whole family. Joshua was unanimously voted to take care of the carcass. Out of curiosity I followed him outside but would not get even close to the garage doorway. Joshua poked it with the pitchfork several times to no avail further confirming to us that it was dead. He tried to get me to help him carry out the container but I kept a wary distance. Once outside he said there were two in there. Of course I had to go see them. After all dead possums don't jump on people do they? He decided to dump them down the cistern in our backyard and once again he was on his own. Then he said, "Hey Michaela I think it's breathing." And sure enough it was. Well he then tipped over the container and started poking both of them with his pitchfork. All they did was bare their teeth and try to go out the back door(which didn't exist). I got a shovel from the garage and started banging on the sides and top of the container which was a very satisfying action after my fright. Finally they both ran out and Joshua hit them so hard with the pitchfork they flipped over which was also very satisfactory to see. They weren't even full grown but even as young it is my opinion that possums are the most ugliest, smelliest, most disgusting creatures in North America. After that Joshua made me wash out the container. To conclude I have been washing my hands regularly throughout the day. Ah, it felt good to get that out.

A Little Surprise

This morning began as all mornings, nothing particularly special. Until Michaela entered the house after feeding the cats with a shriek. Now Michaela does not usually enter the house with a shriek (and our cat already had its kittens) so Grace and I immediately drew our attention to Michaela. Michaela instantly declared "There's a dead opossum in our bird food container!!!!" There was a brief moment of silence, and then my mother noted the obvious "Well get it out of there." Of course, I, the "man of the house" was instantly selected for this glorious and envious task. My first decision was to make sure that this opossum was dead. I armed myself with a pitchfork. I carefully prodded the opossum with the pitchfork, the opossum didn't even flinch. Obviously it was dead (right?). Of course, I wasn't about to stick my hand in there gloves or no gloves. So I brought the container out into the light. Our little surprise suddenly turned into two. Now I had two dead opossums on my hand, and two sisters giving pointless commentary on the whole proceedings. Still not wanting to touch them, I decided on the course of dumping the whole container into our cistern. Fortunately, (for the opossums) I noticed one was breathing. Although I am a homeschooler, I'm positive I learned somewhere that dead things don't have a tendency to breathe. I prodded the opossum once again to make sure, to my great consternation the only movement it did was breathe. (And people think I'm a heavy sleeper). I turned the can sideways, still no movement. After about ten jabs with the pitchfork, one opened its eyes, and the other moved its leg. After another ten jabs, they were both making definite action to get out of the can . . . the wrong way, through the bottom of the container. (Just to make sure you know there is no opening in the bottom of a container). Finally I managed to get them out, and sent them scurrying out of the yard each with an extra jab. Then turning to his sister Sir Joshua, Opossums-bane, quoth "Now I leave thee to clean out the can." Thus ends the narrative.