Seasons

This Christmas season has got me thinking...its usually a time when we celebrate but Christmas also gets me thinking in a lot of ways...about my childhood because I miss my mother at this time, about friends with whom we used to have so much fun at Christmas time and also about a lot of people who are needy...Christmas is the season of giving and I make it a point to try and give as much as I can this season, but really this time I started thinking that its a season like any other season in our life...not weatherwise!

The Bible says there is a season for everything -
1 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.....

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I have been going through a season of uprooting, and mourning, a season of refraining and searching, and sometimes downright tears....but I can rejoice knowing that seasons are not permanent and that after these seasons comes seasons of planting, rejoicing, embracing and giving up on searching questions...

This Christmas I can look forward to lots of good things coming my way...and so can you... Wishing you a very happy Christmas and lots of good seasons in your life...

Christmas Season

Christmas season has been my favorite time of the year ever since I was a child. It brings back memories of my mother making cake and cookies and sweets that would fill the whole house with a distinct "Christmas" smell...in fact the whole lane we lived in would be aromatic!
Times were simpler when I was a child, my brother's job was to get the Christmas tree and he would go and ask a kind person to allow him chop off a branch of their Christmas tree..so the tree would usually be 3' feet tall and we would decorate it on Christmas Eve with home made decorations. We would each get one gift each and that would be the gift that we were just "dying" to get...These days, I use an artificial 8' tall tree decorated with beautiful shining baubles and lights put up much earlier to bring in Christmas much earlier, stacks of gifts pile up under the tree. It was different then but its still good now and I have a few handmade ornaments that remind me of our childhood! Christmas traditions are a wonderful way to celebrate this festive seasons..though we had different traditions then, I have made new traditions with my own children for them to remember and carry on...One such tradition is the "Advent Calendar" - every year we make a calendar with a countdown to Christmas! And on each day we do a Christmas related activity/craft or some holiday special deed..This way we remember Christmas each day and do something special. It is a fun time and the kids really look forward to it..

The spirit of Christmas is about love, joy and peace which our Savior came to give. So this year we made a calendar with the exact same words. And everyday we will change the number of days by writing on an icecream spoon we stuck into the gifts !
So get ready for 25 days of activities !
Merry Christmas !!