A Christmas Letter from Jesus

Okay, I know, super cheesy title. I am usually not a huge fan of random forwards, or "letters from God" about the state of America today etc. But this caught my eye on facebook today and after talking about it with my husband, I wanted to share it with you all. We had several conversations over break with family members on both sides of our family about the trend to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." People have strong opinions on both sides of this issue, and that's great, people are entitled to feel however they want to feel on this subject. In interest of full disclosure, both of us fully celebrate Christmas and fully support secular retailers saying "Happy Holidays." I expect to hear Merry Christmas at church with fellow Christians. I don't need to hear it from a non-Christian store clerk at Target for me to remember the reason I celebrate. (Certainly if they want to say Merry Christmas, that's awesome, but I am definitely not offended if they give me a generic "happy holidays"). Regardless of how you may feel about this, I invite people to read through this following "Letter from Jesus" about this issue. I don't know who wrote it, but I think it brings up some great points and reminds us what the real reason for the season is: loving and serving one another, not arguing with people who don't share our faith over the fact that they use the "wrong" language wishing us a happy holiday season.

Letter from Jesus about Christmas

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, work on getting along and loving one another.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santa and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15: 1 - 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing the President complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up.. It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5 Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd
close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary--especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other
charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those
whom you love.

My New Toy

For Christmas my parents got me my new toy, the Kindle, an electronic reader by Amazon. I'd been debating whether or not I wanted one for quite awhile now, and I think I'm going to enjoy it! I love that it is so easy to carry around, that I can carry tons (literally thousands, if I ever choose to download that many!) of books with me at one time (which will be awesome for travel!). I love that it has internet access pretty much anywhere so I can get online, check email from the airport, and browse Amazon books from wherever I am. I am still definitely a paper person, and I will always continue to read "real" books, but I think for awhile anyways, I'm going to be a Kindle fan :) For those who aren't familiar with a kindle, you buy books through Amazon and it automatically sends the book straight to my kindle, within a minute or two. And, the biggest bonus is that all the books are way cheaper than buying them in print. For instance, most new releases (like Dan Brown's new book) are $25 and come out only in hardback. They are $9.99 on Kindle, and many classics are even free. My mom downloaded 5 different books for me that I am very excited about--in fact I even changed my 28 Books to read this year list to accommodate these new titles :) I just finished the "real" book I was reading, so now I'm about to start my first Kindle book (Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol). I'll keep you all posted!

South Carolina Christmas part 2

Round 2 of photos from the week in South Carolina--it's off to Minnesota for Christmas #2 tomorrow :)

Rodd finally got the wireless internet working Sunday night, so 4 of us brought out the laptops to enjoy it!Monday afternoon we went on a walk at a nature reserve

Tuesday was our 2nd annual mystery day with the kids! We've been working on trying to do gifts that involve more time together and relationship building rather than simply buying things for people, and it's been really fun to carry this out with the kids! Here they are, with their "tickets" for the day ready to go!We took them into Charleston and had a list of things for them to try to find and take pictures of while wandering around the city. One of the items was to find a store that started with the first letter of each of our names. Here's Chuck with his "C" store!Find a Christmas tree!Helen in front of "Henrys' House" for her "H" storeat the candy storeWith a palmetto treeFind a fountaina fun random swing at waterfront park in CharlestonFind and mimic a statue. Don't we all look like George Washington?Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sarah copying a statueAfter grabbing lunch and ice cream we took them to a movie. In the lobby of the theater was an advertisement for How to Train Your Dragon which comes out in March. It's a Dreamworks movie that our friend Josh worked on, so we're trying to get some advertising done for him!
We actually went to see The Princess and the Frog which was absolutely wonderful. We all loved it, it was funny, sweet, great music, a class Disney movie along the same caliber as Beauty and the Beast or Lion King. The whole thing is set in New Orleans and it was fun to see a Disney movie take place in a real setting instead of in a castle far away--this movie totally surpassed my expectations!

7 Quick Takes Friday

So I started this on Friday when we got here to South Carolina, but I wasn't in the blogging mood, so I didn't get very far. Here's take 2 at this last week's 7 Quick Takes Friday :)

**1**
HUGE congratulations are in order to Jenn and Josh! They got engaged Thursday night and while we were so so sad we couldn't be at their engagement party that night to celebrate them we are SO excited for them! They are truly an amazing couple and it has been such a joy to watch their relationship grow over this past year!
**2**

We survived this past week, which was busy and exhausting, but filled with many joyful moments! The lock in last Friday night was a success, although I am pretty sure it took me days to recover my sleep! We worked on planning the youth group Christmas party which took place Wednesday evening, so it definitely felt like a full week of church related activities. It was an Ugly Christmas Sweater party, which, for those who don't know, means you all come wearing an ugly sweater and you have a competition for the ugliest. Favorite moment by far was when a freshman girl came up to me and said she borrowed her Christmas sweater from her mom and just told her it was a Christmas Sweater Party. She said "I didn't tell her it was an ugly sweater party because she is going to wear this sweater on Christmas! She loves it!" I told her that was probably a good call :) A few photos from the night. By the way, the bright colored sweater Jason is wearing in all these photos is mine. I bought it at good will to wear, but he took it for the evening...

**3**

I am marching right along on my list of 28 books to read in my 28th year. I finished The 19th Wife last night and it was absolutely wonderful. It's been awhile since I had just randomly picked up a book off a shelf without having heard any recommendations of it and decide to read it. Well this was one of those for me and it was such a fascinating read. It tells the story of Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young's wives, and her fight to end polygamy in the Mormon church. There are a lot of layers to the book, and the story is heartbreaking, hopeful, and complicated. Definitely receives a high recommendation from me!

**4**
The next book I'm about to start is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I've heard amazing things about this book from many people whose reading tastes I respect. However, I go into this book with a bit of a bad experience realted to it! When I was probably 19 our family drove from Sacramento to Denver and back, and Mom bought us this book to listen to on tape while in the car. Lets just say this is not the book to listen to aloud while drive for thousands of miles across landscape that doesn't change. You'd doze off, and then wake up an hour later, and the lady was still reading, and the family was still in Africa, and while you'd missed an hour of the story it felt like you didn't miss a thing. So 3 of the 4 of us in our family grew to dislike this book. But, I'm determined to try again with an open mind because it looks like the type of story I would normally love--so I'll keep you posted!

**5**
Chuck and I discovered a new TV interest this week--the fox tv show Glee, about a high school Glee club. Our entire youth group is absolutely obsessed with it, so we decided to download the first two episodes on itunes and watch on the plane. We really enjoyed it and are having fun discussing the different sociological aspects of the show in light of what we've learned about teen culture. For anyone who loves music, you'll love this show.

**6**
My little niece is apparently learning to smile! I can't wait to see her on Wednesday and attempt to see for myself!

**7**
I finally watched the great classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail last week, definitely a bizarre and hysterically absurd movie! Can now cross that one of my list of movies to see this year...:)

Christmas in South Carolina, Take 1

We've been here in South Carolina since Thursday evening having a great time with the Kennedy family! Carroll and her family showed up on Friday, and Chuck's brother Teddy came Friday night. We celebrated Christmas Saturday evening so Teddy could head back to Atlanta tonight, and the rest of us take off Wednesday afternoon. More photos will be coming (especially after our Tuesday mystery adventure day that we're taking the 3 kids on!) but here are a few from the beginning of our time here. Happy Christmas week everyone!

Chuck and Diana decorating the Christmas tree Friday nightHelen and Diana playingHelen and I in front of our newly decorated Christmas tree.

Jon found a friendPlaying Dominoes--Diana had just finished a sour blue sucker thing that she picked out on her trip to Wal Mart with Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sarah. Looks like she enjoyed it!On Saturday we took the kids on a walk to the church playground to get some fresh air and exercise. It was a great outing and gave us time to chat more with Rodd and Carroll on the walk as well!Uncle Chuck and Jon patiently waiting for Christmas dinner to be served Saturday night.We opened Christmas gifts Saturday night--Chuck and I gave the kids a Calvin and Hobbes book to share (which I loved at their age!), a shirt for each of them, and then are taking them out on Tuesday for their annual mystery day adventure. Sorry, can't tell you the plans on here, it's a secret! Pictures will come later this week....Wrapping paper fight!We wanted to celebrate both Ed and Audrey's birthdays while home (one is in Nov. and one is in January) so we got them to go to church a little early and then several of us decorated the dining room in Citadel blue and white really quickly so when they got home we threw them a surprise lunch party, complete with ice cream cake and a trivia game Chuck and Carroll created.The annual family photo session. The Neely clanCarroll and I ended up dressing alike without doing any planning! We were joking that this must be our sign we're sisters :)Diana, my little Christmas Elf and IThe family photoRodd and his beautiful daughters!

Sleep?? We don't need no stinkin sleep!

Ahh, the annual lock in...I always used to say I didn't want to do youth ministry because I didn't want to chaperon the lock ins. Well, I am doing youth ministry now, and yes, the occasional lock in comes with the territory. And I will say that it really was pretty fun :) Especially until about 4:30 in the morning--I had plenty of caffeine and energy to go until then. I'll admit I kind of hit my wall after that, and was ready to go home, but we survived :) We had about 24 high school students at the church from 8 PM until 8 AM Friday night/Saturday morning for a night of games, junk food, sodas, and silliness. Enjoy the photos!

We started the night at 8 with pizza, dancing, and hanging out. George, Chuck and Spencer are ready!Kaitlyn and IAmber introduces George to a stuffed otterDance party!Melissa, Jeff and Beau help check kids in--the leaders look ready, bring on the craziness!Kelli and Amber in the sound booth playing DJMusical ChairsIt came down to Spencer and Kaitlyn...Kaitlyn won!James & Chuck in the pass the life saver on the tooth pick relayBrother and sister--Matt and Kaitlyn figuring out how to pass the life saverCaroline, Kailyn and IOur next activity was to break into two teams and without using words do an interpretive dance to tell an assigned story. Our team was given "Alice in Wonderland meets Cinderella going to the ball." Alice is hiding from the Evil Queen of Hearts here.The evil stepsisters tearing Cinderella's dress while Alex (the prince's horse) looks on.Alice is about to meet the Mad HatterOur judgesThe other team was to dance the story of heros and villians at a ball.Our team won :)
A manly game of pool. Other games of the night included capture the flag using the whole church building, a "find the leader" game, sardines using the whole church in the dark and "psychiatrist."Spencer and Chuck playing fooseballA push up competition
Create the best 3 person statueSaturday morning, waiting for parents to arrive. The "after" pictures (most people stayed up all night)George and AustinTaylor and Caroline waiting to be picked up