This was a wonderful Christmas for me.  I just found it less stressful than recent years.  There was a lot  of good things to be said for this one. 

But the best part of Christmas 2011 was not

Baby’s first haircut on Christmas Eve

It was not growing daughters now able to frost the cakes to be decorated for Jesus’ birthday

It was not Christmas Eve afternoon snuggles with my son who likes to lie on the floor and just rest [like his mom used to do]

It was not our fifth annual Christmas Eve celebration with our dear friends/almost family

It was not decorating the cakes for Jesus’ birthday and letting the girls put on as much junk as they wanted to

It was not Christmas morning with our own Santa Nigel with gifts he and Stewart bought with their own money – he made his costume himself

It was not Christmas morning with Ba, Poppy, Nanny, and Nene for breakfast, gifts, and church

It wasn’t fun new recipes to make for our annual breakfast

It was not cupcake hats and “Isn’t he cute,” faces

It wasn’t Tebow jerseys for the big four that I let them wear to church
[It wasn’t even an 11 year old who felt it wasn’t proper to wear the jersey, but wore his shirt and tie instead]

It wasn’t even my surprise gift.  I NEVER get big surprise gifts from John.  Ever. 

It wasn’t even the 12/26 shopping spree with a new “Snow Buddy” for Tab and a new “Elf Buddy” for Johanna

The best part of Christmas 2011 is here.  This came from a friend’s camera phone!  Yay for technology. 

The best part of Christmas 2011 came just at the close of church on Sunday morning.  The service ended just a bit early so that the congregation could get to their cars and drive to our pastor’s house.  Jeff has been engaged in an aggressive fight against cancer now for almost four months.  The treatments are intense, but he is pressing on.  Why was this the best part?  It was all about love.  LOVE!  That is what Christmas is all about.  LOVE.  The love the father had for us was intense.  Powerful.  Sacrificial.  And our call to love (as a verb) is clear!  We LOVE God.  We LOVE JEFF.  Taking our love to his lawn, and his NEIGHBORHOOD was, above all, the best part of Christmas for me.  If I could keep only one thing on this page, it would be caroling for our pastor, his wife, his son, and his parents.  We love them. 

 

This is from 1 John 4 – NKJV – Bible Gateway.

Knowing God Through Love
⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Seeing God Through Love
¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.