Tag Archives: Christmas Decorations

Christmas is Coming-Part 8

21 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Even though Christmas has come and gone – as has the New Year celebration – I would like to continue describing my Christmas decorations – around the house, the neighborhood and our church building.

Finally, we come to the decorations at our church.   As I mentioned earlier, some of our church members were animators at Disney, and their ideas for decorating are magnificent!  Wait and see….

I’m not going to give dates on these pictures, just know that they have spread over quite a few years.

I’m not sure just where the church acquired this nativity scene, but it’s been used nearly every Christmas for a number of years.  It’s beautiful.

I asked why it looks “blue” in the picture, and she said it was probably the LED lights behind it.  In person, it is completely white.

We have two sound booths – both are decorated: 

The church has one other booth for one of our cameras that we use for live streaming the morning worship service.  They and the entrance doors are also decorated.

The committee also decorated the entrance to the building.  We have a covered entrance (really nice on rainy days!), and the supporting posts were decorated thusly:

They also placed large wreaths on the outside lights of the Sanctuary.

I really like this look for our Sanctuary building.

And so ends the “Christmas is Coming” saga.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk-through decorations for Christmas, as much as I’ve enjoyed posting it.  I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours, and Fred and I pray your 2024 will be pleasing both to you and to God.  We pray God’s guidance for you, and His great Love and Mercy to you.

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Christmas is Coming-Part 5

31 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Well, Christmas is behind us, but the decorations are still up.  Fred likes to leave them up until January 6, or The Three Kings Day.  I don’t mind – it’s only one month each year, and we like the decorations.

Back to our living room/dining room…early on in our marriage, when we were poor, and I didn’t know how to decorate very well (not sure I do even now!), I went for “simple,” and would just lay or drape gold garlands across some of the furniture – like I’ve done here with our teak-wood sideboard:

and other places around the house, as will be shown in other pictures.

There is a “runner” on the sideboard above – we purchased that from a vendor in Rothenberg, Germany, on our Viking River Cruise in 2015.  She had a lovely little shop along the main street, and I liked this one.  We remember that shop and owner every Christmas when we put it out.

The next thing to see is our teak-wood dining room table.  I purchased the runners through the mail when we were living in Heidelberg, Germany in the early 1980’s.  They have held up nicely, and I use them every Christmas.  The pinecone wreath I purchased while we were living in Wiesbaden, and have used it ever since.  I really enjoy it.

This is how the room(s) look from the kitchen doorway:

In the short hallway between the living room/dining room and the kitchen is a short wall, where I hang a Disney Advent Calendar (regular calendar the rest of the year).

On the opposite wall, I hang these Christmas stockings (regularly baskets and greenery).

And now into the kitchen/family room/den area.

There is a short wall between the kitchen and the living room, where I hang this Santa figurine (usually German bells).

Opposite that wall, I have what I call a “green bakers rack.”   As you can see, I’ve added some gold garlands to each of the shelves.  The candle in the middle of the top shelf we purchased in Wiesbaden.  It has a topper that holds a wick that comes off and allows you to place a candle inside that can burn.

The middle shelf holds a figurine of the gate to Heidelberg, Germany.  Our daughter, Karen gave that to us many years ago, and we love it, since we lived in Heidelberg for three years.  There is a small electric bulb inside that I have kept lit all those years – and it has never burned out!

The lowest shelf holds a Lennox cathedral, given to us by my best friend quite a few years ago.  It also has a small electric bulb in it, but I only burn it during the evening hours.  The “angels” I purchased some time ago, and are “Hope” “Faith” and “Love.”

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Christmas Dinner “Take Out”

15 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

The Christmas dinner I wrote about last week, gave me an unexpected “take out.” I didn’t ask for it and would have gladly left it there, but alas, it was somehow sent home with me and for the next twelve days I found myself changed into a cough factory. To complicate matters, I decided to bring out my stubborn panties and refused to see a doctor. After nine days, I waved the tissue of surrender and visited a walk in clinic. And voila, three days later I am on the mend.

As I am writing this, the sweet Holy Spirit tapped me on my heart, reminding me that the nasty cough is a learning opportunity. The next time I get my panties in a wad, don’t wait until I am miserable before taking the problem to the ultimate physician.

Ok, moving on… At our home in the North Carolina mountains, I like to celebrate the seasons and my favorite way is with an entryway display. I am not a crafty sort of person. Well, I can be devious, but I am talking about being crafty in an artsy sort of way, so this is a stretch for me. Over Thanksgiving I asked Rebekah to help me do something special for Christmas. I have an old Windsor chair that is the central piece. ( I think my mother rescued it from a trash heap)

Usually, I add a woven basket and fill it with shiny Christmas ball and pinecones, but this year I wanted to change it up. Our town in Florida recently was blessed with a Hobby Lobby store and the abundance of Christmas stems had me itching to use them.

I wanted the items in the display to have a story and as my mind make a mental inventory of items I could repurpose, I remembered a butter churn that came from my grandparents farm. It was old and dull and the paddle was broken. It lived at my parents home. One year my mother and husband worked together to give it a fresh coat of paint and fashion a new paddle. They gave it to me as a Christmas gift, a labor of love and I have treasured it. I decided it would make a perfect “vase”.

Rebekah helped me choose white, glittery poinsettia to go with the rather dashing red and green spray-ish  stem I had chosen to give it height. In some leftover Christmas supplies I found  red mesh ribbon and we tied it around the churn and attached a glittery bow ornament. ( Can you tell I am in a glittery phase) Now the poor paddle looked naked and lonely, so I rummaged through discarded tree decorations and found some tightly wound tinsel. We wrapped it around the paddle handle and it looked good, but was missing something. Rebekah pulled out a tree topper that was too heavy for our current tree. It is made of beaten metal and the lights gleam through Mickey Mouse ear shaped holes. Perfect!

For the chair, I decided to use a precious quilt a friend had made for me out of pieces of my mother’s favorite clothes.  We spread it over the chair, then placed a white stuffed bear, a discard from a grandchild, on the seat. I thought he looked a bit bare, so I went through drawers and found a pair of Sponge Bob Square Pants Christmas boxers. They were used one Christmas when the whole family wore Christmas PJs.  I slid them on and although they are too big and droopy, I like them. Memories are better than making a fashion statement. We added a Christmas pillow and a couple of small stuffed friends and the display was complete. It certainly is not elegant but the glow I feel when I pass it, makes it beautiful to me.

christmas-churn-copy

If you look closely you can see the star lights on the paddle top, peeping through the shiny stem.

Ten days until Christmas!

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After Christmas…

5 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

Judy Wills

 

Christmas is such a joyous time.  I love the decorations – not only at our house – but also those that the neighbors put up.  Ours is rather tame compared to some of our neighbors, but that’s okay…….we have what WE enjoy!

1

I love the season that reminds us that our Savior was born – to bring us life everlasting in His presence.  I’m sorry that society has made it into something so commercial, that so many people can’t see past the glitter to see God’s handiwork.  We received an e-mail from some friends who are working with Wycliffe Bible Translators, telling of some translators in Nigeria who were working on Luke 2:7, where “She [Mary] gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.”  After pondering the word “manger” the locals used a word.  When the Wycliffe translator asked what that word meant, they said it was a “cradle” hung by ropes where the newborn could be laid and it could be swung.

The Wycliffe translator tried to get them to understand that was not what happened – that Jesus came in the lowest possible way, that it wasn’t just a matter of tradition. God expects us to find the words that express the original meaning as accurately as possible. Furthermore, this word tells us something profound about God.  “When He came to live among us and bring salvation to us, He came in the lowliest way possible. He did not come and sleep in a nice rope-hung cradle like every mother wants for her newborn.  Instead, He showed us his unbelievable humility.  So we need to find your best word for an animal feeding trough.”

Suddenly the one who had argued most loudly for the traditional term offered, “We feed our animals out of an old worn-out basket that is not usable anymore except to feed the animals. We have another word for it.” 

And so they used that word. 

That story reminded me of a man in our church who works on the Jesus film for the Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru).  He said that there was a translator working with the team in Africa going from village to village, and he would translate.  But it wasn’t until they took the film to HIS village, and he heard the story in his heart language that he finally understood the message of Christ!

God has made it so very easy for us to know and find Him.  In the “after-Christmas” we must hang on to the message that God sent his one and only Son to be born in the lowliest way possible, and grow into the man who would die for our sins, so we can live forever in His presence. 

How very great is our God!! 

 Psalm 8:9

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

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