I love sharpies (I don’t listen, don’t bother to warn me about them) for writing names. So fast. Not fiddly. Come in good colors.

I love that Blaire prefers the bows for brooches, and removes them with haste from all presents that she notices.

I am relieved that I am almost done with Blaire’s stocking, all but the toe and the holly berries. I love that this picture captures the droopy tree, the enormous advent calendar, the stocking, and the wild party animal that is Blaire. The double-point needles that she stabbed into my yarn in a gesture of goodwill. Most of all, I love Christmas for kids. I love doing things that are outrageously tacky because the kids will love it. Like maybe stringing a full string of FLASHING Christmas lights across the kids’ table at Sabbath dinner. We want them to feel like we are really classy, you know?

You can always wait until you have the time and energy to make everything from scratch but for some of you (like me!), that time can be ever elusive and baking can seem like an overwhelming prospect. The above pic is one example of how I jump right in with the kids, shallow end first. I baked a batch and after school everyone will frost and sprinkle for a post-tree outing treat!

The angels knew what was going on even if no one else did. They grasped the bizarre reality of Shakespeare stepping onto the stage, of God making Himself vulnerable, dependent, and human — making Himself Adam. And so, in a more appropriate spirit, they arranged a concert and put on what was no doubt the greatest choral performance in plantetary history.

Were the kings gathered? Where were the people with the important hats? Where were the ushers, the corporate sponsors?

The Heavenly Host, the souls and angels of stars, descended into our atmosphere and burst in harmonic joy above a field and some rather startled shepherds.

But the crowd was bigger than that. The shepherds were a distinct minority. Mostly, the angels were just singing to sheep.

I’m sure those animals paid attention, and not just because there was a baby in their food bowl.

Sidenote: Does this sound like something a human would make up? Does it sound like something a bunch of cult builders would create to impress potential tithers?

And then the Holy One, the World-Maker, was born in a …in…uh…

And the angels themselves descended, overflowing with jubilation and sang to a radomly selected flock of sheep and a couple of their unwashed, illiterate shepherds — the Lord Incarnate’s first worshipers.

Here they are out of the mothballs, the original childhood stockings belonging to our kids. I made the first one from a kit my mom sent me, and I remember having a blast making it. Then a couple years later when Nate was born, she bought me another kit, and I pulled his together in time for his first Christmas. But when Rachel was born the day before Thanksgiving, my mom knew it wasn’t going to happen, so she kindly sewed Rachel’s. They are all hand-stitched, which is what made the whole process so enjoyable, and they are still holding together after all that rough handling Christmas mornings!

This little guy is another sample of Mom’s handiwork. She made this just in time for the first grandkids to start enjoying, and it has hung on my wall at Christmas ever since. Thanks, Mom!

Finally, I just had to end this post with the grand finale. There’s my old childhood stocking on the left. My mom is an avid knitter, so when we lived in Germany, my dad bought her a knitting machine. But she really preferred to sit and knit with her needles….so Dad, being a guy who always loved figuring out how things work, whipped up stockings for us kids and Mom sewed them up. Now, fifty years later, I’m still hanging up my stocking that Dad made! Thanks, Dad! It’s not every daughter who can brag about the stocking her Dad made. But when you are an Air Force pilot who has fought in two wars for his country,  there is no threat to your manhood in learning to operate a knitting machine!

Last, and probably least, is the humble stocking I crafted for my husband back in our newly-wed days. Yes, it’s made from old jeans, and he still prefers it to the knit one I ordered for him years later. I never got around to getting his name on that thing, but the pocket is pretty cool, don’t you think?

Wishing you all Merry Days Ahead!

Though so far I have managed to get the kids Christmas pj’s each year, it’s not as easy as it used to be. With a the size spread from 8 months to 12 years now, they don’t always match exactly. But I remember how exciting new pj’s were when I was little, so I do the “grandma thing” and give them all new jammers. But bear in mind all you mothers, that I am not trying to lay any burdens on you. We are actually trying to free you from burdens, burdens of guilty giving or burdens of not giving at all. When we share our silly ideas, we are simply having fun and inviting you to join in.

Some years I give each family an Advent calendar for week one, and ornaments for the kids another week. Last week the Advent gift was candy. And this year I found some little boxes of handmade ornaments, so instead of giving each child a separate ornament, I gave each family a box of little straw and yarn ornaments. I keep my eyes peeled all year long, and I start gathering Christmas gifts early in the year when I find things on the clearance racks. (This is one of the joys of being a grandma who likes to shop.)

We get each of the grandkids one gift, and then there are the stockings. I tried to stop doing stockings for them a few years ago, because after all, they have stockings at their own homes filled by their own parents. But that was the year that Knox said to me out of the blue, “Nana, are you going to do stockings for us this year?” So I said, “Of course I am” and I have never flinched since then. You mothers of ten or more children, I am now seeing just a glimpse of the momentous task you have at Christmas (not to mention the rest of the year)! That is a lot of stockings. But I’ve been rummaging around and gathering up stuff here and there. I have them all standing up in a box so I can fill them as I go and see which ones are lacking. This year I had to buy two more stockings for two more babies: Marisol and Blaire. What a blessed dilemma it is to have to come up with goodies for so many little ones. I remember the year my parents forgot to get goodies for the stockings, so they filled them with potatoes and carrots! That was a good joke!

But I remember the fact of the stockings more than the contents. They were large and lumpy and absolutely thrilling!

Last night we celebrated an early Christmas with Doug’s family. His dad is heading off tomorrow for California to spend Christmas with Doug’s sister and her family, so we all gathered for take-out Chinese food served up on paper plates. This is a Wilson family tradition, though it used to be on Christmas Eve. This is our first Christmas without Grandma Bessie, and she was probably the one responsible for the Chinese food tradition, chopsticks and all.

So blessings on all your Advent celebrations. Blessings on those little fat heads around your tables. May your Advent be a lovely warm up for the Main Event Coming Soon!

I told you Blaire didn’t like finger painting, but I believe a better way to describe the situation would be that she does not like fingering, but not eating paint. However, one mad baby later, we had this enormous piece of family Christmas art. I love how terribly homely it is! We used two colors of green fabric paint, a big piece of canvas, and some sweet vintage Christmas bias tape that my mother-in-law found somewhere. Felt stickers label our handprints, and while I was originally planning to do a star or some ornaments, I feel that this may just be as busy as it ought to be! It hangs at the end of our hall, here pictured by Blaire’s basket of toys. But that is not where we keep the toys – we keep those all over the living room floor, and sometimes in the kitchen. A few in the laundry room for good measure, some under the couch, and also stuffed into purses and beds hither and yon.

And so it is still the case that when God’s people are rejoicing in His gifts, the other team wants to call it wasteful, gluttonous, and selfish. The enemies of God hate to see His people delighting in and celebrating His Great Advent. Why should our celebrating with our gifts and lights and candles and songs (and cookies and fudge) still annoy the White Witch and her minions? Because without Christ, there is no reason to celebrate, and there is a deep longing in the heart of sinful man to justify his own emptiness by means of envy and greed.  And greed and envy hate to see others enjoying themselves.

So, as my husband pointed out in an exhortation a couple of weeks ago, when you hear people complaining about how much money we waste on celebrating Christmas, remember the White Witch. It is not Aslan speaking through her.

For Chloe: A Flower. And some Grass

For Daphne: A Chicken. She likes chickens

For Titus: A bowl

For Lina: Some water for the ducks

For Blaire: A toy

An idea which was later contributed by Daphne for them all was “something to match our toothbrushes.” It looks to be a pretty good Christmas around here!