Happy Birthday Jesus!

Today was a memorable day. Cavett enjoyed his first attempt at ice skating. He was a bit wobbly at first, but eventually got the balance part of it. For the most part he just held on tight to someone else who did the work for him. As Candace said, "it's like Bambi on ice." It didn't help that the smallest the skates came was a size 10 and he is an 8.

After some R&R at Nana's house we headed to our old stomping grounds, Noel United Methodist Church for the Candlelight service. Out of the 7 kids in the nursery 5 of them were Dent kids! This was quickly followed by Gumbo and Rice at the Chaney's house. To conclude the evening we had birthday cake and ice cream and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

It was great for all 4 siblings and significant others to be able to sit around and visit like "old people" after most of the kids were asleep and the grand (and great-grand) parents were gone. Was this how it was when we were kids? Are we now the adults? No matter, it was a treat to have us all together in the same room on Christmas Eve. It was probably the best gift I could ask for.

May God bless you and yours this Christmas, and as Cavett said as he was walking out the door, "Merry Christmas everyone!"

Christmas Eve Eve and Eve Eve Eve

Friday night we dropped by Grand Saline to check on Stephen's Dad, who is recovering well, by the way. We had a quick little Christmas and Cavett and Kendrick are enjoying their new toys, especially the "Tub Trumpet." In fact, Mom might be enjoying it even more than Cavett.

Saturday we headed to Shreveport just in time to visit with Sithir. He is my college friend, Paula's son. They had a good time getting to know each other and it was an excercise in learning to share for Cavett, since Sithir is a year younger.

Sunday we had the annual Dent/Trickett/Werntz get-together complete with family portraits. Unfortunately, we didn't have any of the Trickett kids there, but hope they are all doing well, especially the newest of the bunch (Jessica which was born Dec. 28th). Later, our Dad's Mom, Memaw came over with our Aunt D.D. and Uncle Mike yesterday afternoon for a visit. Memaw always seems to inspire the thespian in all of us. Anna Grace and Cavett ended up acting out or maybe just "representing" the Chistmas story with a stuffed tiger as Jesus. See Candace's blog for video.

Happy St. Lucia Day!

I'm sure you are saying "Happy what???" Also known as St. Lucy's Day, it was a Church feast day together with Advent, marking the beginning of the Christmas season. Before the reform of the Gregorian calendar, it also marked the longest night of the year. This is probably the reason why the tradition has lived on in the Scandinavian countries, since the nights in the winter are very dark and long and the idea of light overcoming darkness is appealing.

The meaning of Lucy or Lucia is "light" stemming from the Latin-"lux." In one of the stories associated with her legend, she was working to help Christians hiding in the catacombs. In order to bring with her as much food and drink as possible, she needed to have her hands free. She solved this problem by making a wreath to wear on her head on to which she attached lights. Thus she managed to see in the darkness of the catacombs.

As the tradition goes, the eldest daughter of the family dresses in white and wears a candle wreath while serving a sweet roll and coffee to her parents. Now, for some reason in my family, it was the 2nd daughter. I think Candace served it one year in a white dress with the actual candle wreath, although not lit. Our family typically makes this bread (which we call Christmas Bread) for gifts to family friends and then we also have a loaf for Christmas morning.

This is not really a hard bread to make, but it is quite involved making many dishes dirty and 2 risings. Today I delivered my last batch. That was 16 loaves and I still need to make one for our family to enjoy.

Even if this day has roots in pagan celebrations of the solstice, think again. As you see light this Christmas season, may you remember that it is Jesus that comes to overcome the darkness and illuminate us.

But, I still don't have a crook...

Last night we went to church for Las Posadas. Literally, meaning "inns," this is the celebration of the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Cavett was assigned a room in which to dress up and then waited for Mary and Joseph to come by and knock. When they arrived we had a conversaition to the tune of "Away in the Manger" with them asking if there was any room in the inn. When we sang "no," we then joined the procession to the next room. Finally, we ended at the stable. Who knew that Mary and Joseph also had hot fajitas and pinatas waiting for them when they arrived!

Cavett enjoyed dressing up as a "shepherd," but his comment when one of our friends asked him what his thoughts were was--"But, I still don't have a crook!" Evidently, he learned that word at school, because I definitely have not talked about crooks. We got quite a chuckle!

Patience and Generosity

Saturday night we had our first Christmas party of the season at a neighbor's house. There was great food and fellowship as well as a visit from Mr. Claus. In our invitation we were told to bring a wrapped $5 gift for our child to the hostess a week before the party. I did my duty and found a harmonica for Cavett.

Santa arrived and began pulling gifts out of his bag. There were probably 35 kids there all seated on the ground waiting very patiently, mine right in front. His present was so small that it slipped all the way to the bottom of the bag. Cavett sat still while every single child 's name was called, they visited with Santa and received a gift. He was the next to last name called. It was a great lesson and he loved his gift.

We also went to the store this weekend and allowed him to pick out a gift that we were going to take to church. He picked out a Hot Wheels Stunt Motorcycle for a child that "doesn't have any toys." He took it to church and willingly placed it under the Christmas Tree.

He is able to understand so much more this Christmas and I hope that I am able to teach him what Christmas is all about. It's so neat to see the Light in his life, which lights up mine too!

In thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting Light.

Again, my sister blogs eloquently. The strange thing is, I was going to write something very similar this morning, but she beat me to it. I added my 2 cents in the comments. So, go check it out and search for His light in your life.

http://www.chaneylife.blogspot.com/