Anticipating Christmas

This year as I've watched the Christmas lights and decorations go up all over town, and as I make my own preparations for Christmas, I've been thinking about the special anticipation each December brings. The little children, especially, get so excited for Christmas to come! The festive decorations and music everywhere you go just adds to the expectancy.

I wonder what the expectancy was like that First Christmas? How many people were anticipating the Christ Child? He was the long-awaited Messiah, but many people didn't recognize Him when He came. I wonder if they were too wrapped up just in the busyness of their ordinary daily lives to realize that He had come?

Are we anticipating His Second Coming like a little child anticipates Christmas?

His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
Luke 1:50

99 Life Experiences

I saw this on someone else's blog, and thought it would be fun to do. The bolded items are things I've done. (There are quite a few I'd still love to do... some I know I'll never do... and a few I would really rather not do!)

Feel free to copy this to your own blog and bold your experiences. Let me know if you do! I'd love to see your list!

1. Started your own blog (Duh!)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (Although, I don't really think about it that way. God has always met our needs, so we can never really give more than we can afford!)
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (Not Everest or anything... but a small one, yeah.)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (Well, we started to the top anyway! I think we got about half way up and realized that the line was moving too slow for the amount of time we had. So we went back down.)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (Umm... if you haven't, and you aren't blind... I think you need to get outside more!)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (My satisfaction does not come from money.)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (Not rappelling with ropes and gear, but on hikes, yeah.)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (Do home movies count? No? I didn't think so.)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63.Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (Unfortunately... unintentionally... *sigh*)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (My little toe! That's it!)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (Yes! This was one of my long-time goals and I finally got to go in 2006!)
80. Published a book (Does a self-published cookbook count? I think it should!)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (On the front page, above the fold even! Our tiny little town had a front-page feature about the library's story time. And there I was with my toddler on my lap!)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (Okay, I've never had to do the actual killing, but I have helped pluck freshly-butchered chickens and I think that should count!)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (I've been called for jury duty once, but was eventually excused.)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Looks like I got a lot of livin' yet to do!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

As I was looking through some old pictures, I came across this one of my dad when he was a teenager. He was probably 17 or 18 in this picture, and it was obviously taken in December. It was probably not too long before he went away to Bible college. (Or maybe he was home from college for Christmas break.)
What I love about this picture is how young he was, yet he was already committed to following God's will for his life. It took a lot of courage for him to leave his home in Louisiana at age 17 and travel by train to Illinois to put himself through Bible college. But he did it because he felt that's what God wanted him to do. It was after he had been at college for a year or two that he received God's call on his life to become a pastor.

Through the years Dad has never wavered from that early commitment to stay in the center of God's will. There have been hard times, but there have been many blessings, too. As his daughter, I am so appreciative of the Godly heritage he and Mother have given me. I am trying my best to pass that heritage to my own children.

Happy birthday, Daddy! I love you!

My Calendar Plate

My mother always uses her "good china" for special occasions -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, company dinners -- and when I was a little girl, any time the table was set with Mother's good china, I had the privilege of eating from this "special" plate. See? It's a calendar of my birth year!
I have four siblings and none of them had a "special" plate. One time I asked Mother where my plate came from and why the others didn't have one.

"Oh, it was in some stuff Grandmother had... and since you were the only grandchild born in 1965, she gave it to you."

It wasn't like Grandmother to buy such things for gifts for the grandchildren. She was much more practical than that, and besides her gifts were usually hand-made. I wonder if she received it as a gift for Christmas 1964 and when 1965 was over she "re-gifted" it to me? Or maybe it was in a box of stuff she got at an auction?

In any case, it was my "special" plate and so I got to eat off of it on special occasions. That's why the design is beginning to wear off. It's amazing to me that it has survived all these years without getting broken!

Visit Coloradolady for more Vintage Thingy Thursday posts.

Family Fun on the Oregon Coast

It didn't work out for us to get together with extended family this year for Thanksgiving, so we decided to have a mini-vacation on the Oregon coast. We got up early Thanksgiving morning and drove all day, arriving at our hotel just before it got dark.

Here is a view of the beach that was just outside our room. It turned out to be gray and drizzly all weekend, but we knew it probably would be.
Still it was warmer than it had been at home (in the high 40s/low 50s) so the girls enjoyed getting their feet wet in the cold waves!

We had a very simple Thanksgiving meal in our room that evening. The menu was turkey (which I had cooked at home and brought along), green bean casserole, instant potatoes, canned corn, green salad from a bag, store-bought rolls, and sparkling apple cider. Usually I like to cook from scratch more, but this is what we did this time!

On Friday we did some indoor sight-seeing in the area. We visited the Tillamook cheese factory. If you don't live in the west, you probably aren't familiar with Tillamook cheese. I wasn't, until I met my husband. He's from California, and raved about Tillamook cheese. It's a favorite of his.

Then we went to the Tillamook Air Museum. It is housed in a HUGE hangar that was built for blimps during World War II. I had no idea that blimps were used in the war... but I learned that they served as escorts to the aircraft carriers as they could "see" much farther from the air and then radio back to the ship. (There are not any blimps in the museum, but quite a few vintage planes.)

Saturday was the foggiest, drizzliest day of the weekend. We visited the Cape Mears lighthouse. It was closed for the season, so we didn't get to go inside, but we enjoyed the hike down to it. It was interesting to me that the lighthouse wasn't very tall. I assume it didn't need to be because of where it was built on the shoreline.

This is a view of the ocean from beside the lighthouse. I can see why a lighthouse was needed at this point... and I wonder if the light was much help in a fog as dense as this one?

On Sunday we headed home and drove north along the coast on Highway 101 for a bit. We drove out of the fog and into the sunshine!

The fog bank in the far distance is where we stayed! Amazing the difference a few miles can make!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend!