Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am sitting here about to turn on the Macy’s Day Parade and for some reason thinking about Christmas and New Years Day and beyond. For some reason this year it seems like we have skipped over Thanksgiving and are bolting ourselves into the Christmas day time. Retail stores are probably trying desperately to bring in people early this year, and around town I started seeing Christmas displays and hearing Christmas music over the intercom before Halloween was over.
I don’t remember Christmas coming right after Halloween last year but it seems to have creeped its way farther up the calendar this year. I like Thanksgiving and would like to take one of these at a time before we go on to the next one, but I realize that Thanksgiving is not a real big commercial season and no one gives presents from Best Buy at Thanksgiving (thank goodness). If there is no commercial purpose for the holiday, it seems that most businesses, TV and radio will just skip over day now. I hate rushing through life. We rush here and there all day every day and I would like to celebrate one holiday at a time. Deb and I are not real big fans of holiday days anyway, it always disrupts the routines of everything, but I would like to enjoy one before going on to the next.
So, today being Thanksgiving I figured I would do the typical what I am thankful for post. A few things I am thankful for.
- My Savior
- My wife, family, friends
- that I have food to eat, a place to live
- I am able to live in a free country
- clean water and shoes
Those are nothing earth shattering of course, but still something I am continually aware of and thankful for. Early this week on Tuesday a friend of mine, Josh, did a great explanation of why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, why it is important, and what was going on at the time. It was during the Passover Celebration as explained in Exodus, but when Jesus and the disciples celebrated passover supper, Jesus spoke and said:
Matthew 26: 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus “gave thanks” during this celebration dinner, and today we give thanks as well. I do like to remember that this is generally an American holiday (see Thanksgiving is a U.S. Holiday, Think Global) and we should not forget that this is not a world-wide holiday. Last year, Deb and I spent the holiday on our boat (sort of) for a few hours and ended up coming back home after their wifi went down (see here). It’s a year later and we are going to spend the day here at the house with my father-in-law David, (see Deb’s mom’s blog) and watching some football.
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I am replacing my normal Monday morning top 15 list with a holiday greeting for everyone this week. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. I have taken some time off writing, as many of the bloggers have, and I am getting ready to gear up for next year. There have been some really interesting articles written over the last and I am going to include those in my normal weekly post on Monday when everything gets ramped back up again. Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful and restful time this week.
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Christmas time at a marina is really pretty. All the boats get all dressed up and at night they light up the sky with Christmas lights. Sailboats with masts rising 40 feet above the water line is really a site to see. I can’t imagine how it looks up north where it is so cold there is probably not a sole that wants to step outside, but down here in the Gulf Coast, it is at least bearable (for us that is mid-60′s).
We made it down to the marina tonight just in time to see all the masts with their lights on (our is the one in the middle that has no lights on it at the moment). Trying to take a photo on a moving platform, in the dark, of lights, is not the easiest thing to do, but you get the idea. If you have never visited a marina in the winter or during Christmas, it is one of the best times to be there.
Being that I have been a photographer for more than 10 years now I have a hard time adjusting to taking images without a tripod, especially AT NIGHT. But, a tripod does little use on a sailboat that is constantly in motion, so this is the best I could do with hand holding, lights, at night. It was a wonderful site at night.
There were some very strange unique displays as well, but I always love seeing lights to celebrate our Savior’s birth. DK and myself would just assume you leave lights up for Christmas all year round but that doesn’t seems to want to catch on (unless you are really lazy). Maybe we will start a trend.
This display was one of the rather unique ones of the season. This is not a sailboat but a charter boat and yes, that is a Christmas tree at the top.
We didn’t put up any lights this year but we did enjoy those who did. Maybe next year. That is DK’s head just over the rail line (knitting) as the sun is going down. It was a wonderful weekend.
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Sarah’s shawl is complete. It was finished a little late, but still appreciated I think. This shawl is from the book Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle and is called the Stora Dimun shawl. It is a Faroese shawl and the first of this type that I have knit. I used “Essential” yarn from Knit Picks. The first picture isn’t that great, but the one of Sarah modeling the shawl is super. Have a look…
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Wednesday night services at Creede Baptist Church were replaced this week with a community choral sing. This was the first of many to come in the future. It was a joint effort by the Community Church and the Baptist Church and the results were fantastic. The music was phenomenal and was performed by several different members of each church, as well as the congregation in attendance. This is a photo of an impromptu group of very talented folks performing and includes my mother standing third from the right.
Saturday, we went up into the mountains to cut our Christmas tree. Mom and David had scoped the trees out the day before and David found the perfect one.
Here are the guys with their conquest.
Once we cut the tree we had to trek back to the truck. Luckily it was down hill. Doesn’t it look cold? It was, very!
Mom and I decorated it with white lights and clear ornaments. It really looks pretty at night. We are putting red and white bows on it tonight. Looks a little bare underneath though, hmmm…..
The mountains here are so beautiful and so overpowering. A house or person just blends into insignificance when looking at the size of these peaks. The shot at the top of this post is of Bristol Head from the top of the other peak nearby at sunset.
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This Wednesday our weekly Bible study at church was replaced by a gift wrapping party for Operation Christmas Child from Samaritan’s Purse. We enjoyed our weekly pot-luck dinner and then it was on to the wrapping and filling of the shoe boxes.
The church filled 50 boxes last year and the goal was 100 for this year. We did it!! This program is such a blessing to both those children who receive the boxes and especially to those filling them. May God place these boxes in the hands of those who need them the most.
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It sure took a long time to get all that trailer/storage shed stuff sorted out. All of mom’s storage is cleaned out and the trailer is taking shape as a mini sewing room and bead supply warehouse for Pieces of the Past. The trailer looks and functions great now. I put shelving in the back for the bead bins and put a table in the front part for my sewing machine.
I was able to sew all the nieces and nephews Christmas presents within the last two weeks and I think the setup will work very well. Scott and I delivered dad’s gifts to him on Saturday night and I just have a few left to make. We have to make candles for a candle exchange that we are having at mom’s and mom broke her eyeglass lanyard today so I think I will try to make her a beaded one for Christmas.
This week has been a very busy one indeed. I started putting my quilting books on Amazon.com’s marketplace store. Two of the books sold within three days of their listings for a total of $20. This is going to be a great way for me to clean out my stash of quilting books without giving them away.
Although I don’t make new year’s resolutions, I do have a few things I want to accomplish in 2005.
- I want to input all the genealogy information that Gan-Gan left behind into the computer program I have.
- I want to create a blog for the bus progress starting with pictures from when we purchased it to the current state it is in.
- Learn to knit socks well.
