Knowing Why

Five more days! How ready are you for the birthday party?

I have one more gift to wrap and a few gift cards to pick up on behalf of Santa. I have baked chocolate oatmeal cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, walnut balls, lemon squares and magic cookie bars. The plan is to finish up with cream cheese cookies, buckeyes and chocolate brickle today. The brickle is a new recipe I found in a Paula Deen cookbook. I don't know exactly what a brickle should look like because there is no picture but I am sure brickle is fabulous just based on its name. Everything is gluten-free except the walnut balls. Tried to g/f those last year but they are just too crumbly without the magical binding power of wheat. Happily, they aren't one of Jay's favorite so it's not too terrible a tragedy. I have today off and the Mr. has the morning off. Gonna see if I can't sweet talk him into taking the whole day.

So I sit this morning with my snowflake coffee mug wearing my Santa flannel jammies with a dusting of snow outside. The Mr. kissed me good morning and promptly fell back asleep and Donny is outside hunting reindeer.

I am scheduled to work on Christmas Day and someone told me that Christmas is no big deal if you don't have little kids at home. How sad for that person.

Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of your son and the celebration that arises in our spirits because our reconciliation with you became flesh. Thank you for the blessings of my life and thank you for the joy I can experience in Christ. Thank you for a warm and happy home, for enough money to bake goodies (because there were years we couldn't afford that luxury.) Thank you for presents under our tree and thank you that we have learned when to be done with the buying and to settle in with the celebration. Thank you for the peace of my family that arises in times of plenty and sustains in times of trouble. Thank you for the tears that fall during Christmas songs at church. Thank you Father; for inviting me to the birth of your son. I have no gift to bring that's fit to give a King. And yet the King of Kings is mine.