Okay so there are a lot of things to chat about.
On December 3, we went to "Village du Pere Noel" (Santa's Village) at the CCFM (Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain). It's was awesome. They really did a great job putting everything and the kids really enjoyed themselves (except when Emma ran away from Santa Claus).
There were three different areas to the Village. The first was different songs and games. The second area was where Santa was hanging out. The last area was where Mrs. Claus was, the kids each enjoyed a yummy sugar cookie and a play about the three little pigs which was hilarious! So well done.
Since that day, we've just been busy getting some last minute things ready for Christmas and I still can't get over that people actually do all their Christmas shopping in December. I try to avoid the malls as much as possible as Christmas approaches.
I had my office team lunch last week. It was interesting. We had our lunch in a restaurant located in the Club Regent Casino. It was noisy with all the slot machines around and the food was just okay, but I had a good time anyway.
On Thursday we had a pre-Christmas dinner at Dayspring, which had an international flare.
The food was so good, that Richard felt compelled to take a photo of his plate!
One important thing to mention is my old roommate from Chimo (where I lived as a live-in in L'Arche) Ruth is visiting from Germany! I had no idea and was surprised.
On Saturday we had our annual community Pageant and Christmas dinner. They had the pageant before the supper this year, which made the evening seem a little longer for me. All in all however it was a good night, Emma and Xavier both danced. The only bad part from that evening, was that before supper Xavier was suffering some constapation. He finally was able to poop before dinner, but it was hard and hurt him a little. Poor little guy. He's doing much better now, thank God!
I'm looking forward to the Christmas break and hopefully taking some extra time off to make up for the business of the last couple of weeks.
1 comment:
I have read of many churches celebrating Christmas with Pageants that include an actual baby portraying the role of 'baby Jesus'. Our first child Ruth, was born December 12th, 1981 and was chosen to be 'baby Jesus' for our church's (Reba Place Fellowship) Christmas Eve service. Last year, our grandson, Charlie, born on Oct. 19th 2008, was chosen, also at Reba Place Fellowship. But in prison no such ritual exists.
I wasn't even thinking about babies being in Christmas plays back in 1972. This was yet another year in prison, the difference being this was my first Christmas as a christian. The Christmas service held new meaning for me as we sang the traditional Christmas Carols bringing with it a hope for a new life with a redeemed future. Christian volunteers were a part of our service at the U. S. Medical Center for Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.
As our service wound to completion a cry was heard. The faint
whimpering of a baby. My first thought was that I wasn't hearing what I thought I had heard. I had been in prison for many years and had never even seen a baby inside of a prison (not counting my infrequent times in the visiting room.) But there it was again, a baby crying. Someone, a volunteer, had brought their baby into the service wrapped in a blanket unnoticed by the guards. I then thought, there was our 'baby
Jesus'. The parents of the yet unknown child were the children of an older couple (Lloyd and Nita Colbaugh) who had only a few years previously began their ministry to the prison. Even the great-grandmother, (Mom Carter) was a volunteer and had played a significant role in my own conversion, telling me that God had a plan for my life.
Life would go on and the incident of 'baby Jesus' coming to prison would fade to a memory, until the baby grew up and now is known throughout many countries far and wide as acclaimed Christian
singer/songwriter Sara Groves.
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