daybook

december 21

outside my window...

the sun is shining and icicles are dripping from the eaves. The sky is a cloudless gorgeous blue and the snow is sparkling with a million facets of crystals. Sunglasses needed...

I am listening to...
Matisyahu's new holiday song "Miracle"

I am wearing...
dark blue jeans, knee-high black boots, gray long-sleeved shirt and a black belted cardigan.



I'm pondering...
"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."
-A Christmas Carol stave 5


"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here."
2 Corinthians 5:17




I am reading...
"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. A Christmas tradition. This book is a reminder to me, and a comfort to me that we are not beyond redemption. That for this very reason Christ has come, to sponge away the lettering on our graves.


from the kitchen...pasta salad. Cooked chicken pieces, fusilli pasta, canned peaches, peas, carrots, mayo, curry

I am God is creating...
peace and order in my heart. He is showing me what needs to be cut away and what needs to be cultivated. 


towards rhythm and beauty...
Turning on the Christmas lights, lighting a fire, lighting candles. Stopping our hectic schedule for a moment, a mere moment, to sit before the burning candles on the advent wreath, reading scripture, breathing a prayer and singing together, mixing our voices as one family who worships God together.


I am hoping...for wisdom as my children ask difficult questions.

I am praying...
For this Advent season, that it is not just ritual, but within lies a desire to experience the living God and be forever changed by His son.


around the house...
preparations for an evening with friends.Rob, Sami, Jamie and Rachel are coming over for an evening of zombie board games. I will have a buffet set up of pasta salad, pineapple, clementines and gingerbread men with frosting for decorate-your-own gingie.

one of my favorite things... annual Christmas shopping trip with my girls. We are leaving in a an hour to go to the mall and to the high street. They have each earned some money by doing extra chores around the house and today they will buy their presents for our family. I have a few stocking stuffers to get for Dan and a couple of gifts for friends. Then maybe lunch at McDonald's...we will see. It is always a fun day with just us girls.

a few plans for the rest of the week...
Zombie evening tonight, girls' tea with friends tomorrow, Christmas gifts with our best friends on Thursday and then caroling at the castle and Christmas with our friends on Christmas Eve. Oh, and trying to bake a turkey. Hope it's already dead when we pick it up tomorrow...and maybe no feathers would also be nice.