Our Family Christmas – Part 1
Saturday, December 22
The garage is ready.
The tables are set for twenty-five people.
We have a few festive decorations.
There’s even blueberry saltwater taffy from Maine. (Thanks Mark and Diane.)
Josh was an early arrival – looking quite handsome wearing his new glasses.
Look at all that food – and I didn’t make a bit of it.
Chris, Kristen, and Deb took care of all the cooking and planning. I know Abby made the rolls, and I expect other granddaughters did some of the work too.
Jere also had extra responsibilities – especially in bringing food after Kristen hurt her back the night before.
A delicious red velvet cake baked by Jana
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Each year we find it challenging to make the very familiar story of Jesus birth meaningful and not routine. So on this night we read the story from Luke 2 in a rather unique way.
There were fifteen grandchildren (and friends) coming, so we chose fifteen verses from a version that is not quite so familiar, printed them out, cut them apart, mixed them up, and handed them to the young people.
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It went something like this:
7 She gave birth to her first son. She wrapped him up well and laid him in a box where cattle are fed. She put him there because the guest room was full.
18 Everyone was surprised when they heard what the shepherds told them.
16 So they went running and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the feeding box.
11 Today your Savior was born in David’s town. He is the Messiah, the Lord.
20 The shepherds went back to their sheep, praising God and thanking him for everything they had seen and heard. It was just as the angel had told them.
13 Then a huge army of angels from heaven joined the first angel, and they were all praising God, saying,
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord was shining around them. The shepherds were very afraid.
12 This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box.”
8 That night, some shepherds were out in the fields near Bethlehem watching their sheep.
19 Mary continued to think about these things, trying to understand them.
14 “Praise God in heaven,
and on earth let there be peace to the people who please him.”
Jesse cannot read, so Josh helped him with his verse.
17 When they saw the baby, they told what the angels said about this child.
15 The angels left the shepherds and went back to heaven. The shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this great event the Lord has told us about.”
6 While Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, the time came for her to have the baby.
10 The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid. I have some very good news for you—news that will make everyone happy.
