Third Sunday in Advent

We imagine how it would be to anxiously await His first coming - We celebrate His first coming.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.


You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy;
they rejoice before You 
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.


For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on His shoulders.


And He will be called 
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty god,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.


The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;


on those living in the land of the shadow of death


a light has dawned.

What's Familiar to Me

Recall that I was in Evergreen this past Thursday through Sunday.

Sunday morning, as I was getting ready for Church, Mary Ann had already left - and the sheet music on her piano caught my eye - and then the thought came how much a part of Christmas that is - It was always on the piano during Christmas - and not for decoration - but to be played and sung - so I took pictures -

I looked around - the sheet music wasn't all that was familiar - 

Christmas Memories

Yesterday was

the second Sunday in this Advent season - 


I have other things to post - but in this second week I found this wonderful prayer from The Valley of Vision - I found it through Laura Beth's blogpost for today.  It's at the beginning of a book she and Scott are reading together at night to celebrate the season.  


O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
and enlarge my mind;
Let me hear good tidings of great joy, and in hearing,
believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my eyes
uplifted to a reconciled Father;
place me with ox, ass, camel, goat, to look with 
them upon my Redeemer's face, and in Him
account myself delivered from sin;
let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my
heart,
embrace Him with undying faith,
exulting that He is mine and I am His.
In Him thou has given me so much that heaven can
give no more.

Laura Beth Requested This Recipe

And since she did, I'll just put it here 

so others can have it if they want it.  

And a few pictures of the party follow this recipe.

Christmas Bread

2 packages active dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water

1 cup milk, scalded

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1 - 1/2 teaspoons salt

5 to 5 - 1/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 eggs

Soften yeast in the water.  Combine scalded milk, sugar, shortening, and salt;  cool to lukewarm.

Stir in 2 cups of the flour;  beat vigorously. Add eggs; beat well.

Stir in the softened yeast and enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Turn dough out on well-floured surface. Knead till smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Place dough in lightly greased bowl; turning once to grease the surface.  Cover; let rise in a warm place till doubled, about 2 hours. Punch down. Divide dough in half;

cover and let rest 10 minutes. Divide each half in 4 parts. Roll 3 parts of dough in 20-inch strands; braid. Carefully place braid around greased 6-ounce juice can on greased baking sheet.  Seal ends together to form continuous braid.   Divide remaining piece of dough in half.  Shape in  2 20-inch strands and twist together.  Place on top of braid.

Repeat with remaining half of dough. Let rise in warm place till doubled, about 1 hour. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or till golden.  Remove juice can;  while wreaths are still warm, brush with confectioners‘ sugar glaze:  Add enough milk or cream to 2 cups sifted confectioners‘ sugar to make of spreading consistency.  Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and dash of salt; mix well.  Decorate tops with walnut halves, and red and green candied cherries.  Makes 2 coffeecakes.

Other option - to make 4 braided loaves out of recipe.

Divide entire recipe of dough into 4 parts.

Each 1/4 divide into 3 parts and braid.

tuck ends under to create rounded ends.

Bake and decorate the same as the wreaths. 

Magazine note suggests baking the bread the day before.  Then heat, frost, and decorate it right before serving. 

Our party was fun - here are a few pictures of us all together.

Melissa, my cousin, with Mary, my aunt, her mom,

looking at old Christmas pictures  I'd found and set out for them all to look at.

They all could see either themselves or someone familiar in the stack.

Mary Ann, my sister, on the right, talking with Jenny, a second cousin.

Jenny alway tells the story of when she was a little girl and Daddy was 

the "new band director in town" and she had such a little girl crush on him.

She would always tease Mother and say how mad she was 

when Mother married Daddy.

Nell, in the red, is the one who was so kind to host Sarah with her artwork

a few weeks ago, in Nell's bank lobby.

(an aside: Nell had several of us over at her house Saturday afternoon to watch the Auburn/South Carolina SEC Championship game.  Wow! What a game.  Can I join all the other fans and say WAR EAGLE!)

Connie in the blue, talking with Susan.  I call Susan my cousin.  She is actually married to my cousin, Bert, but good grief!  Doesn't that make her my cousin?  I love her and she is the sweetest and dearest and I can't remember when she wasn't in the family.

Connie was my neighbor on Williams St and has recently moved back to Evergreen.

I guess I've known Connie since I was in the 4th or 5th grade, 

when they moved next door to us.

We had a great time - everyone talking at the same time - as you can imagine when women get in the same room.  What can I say?

I've had my "hometown" Christmas and I'm feeling a bit homesick for my Scottsboro home.  I'll be traveling back to North Alabama right after church today.

I haven't been in my very familiar Evergreen Methodist Church in a while,

so I chose to do that this Christmas season - just to cap off this weekend.

Here I Am, in South Alabama, Again

Remember this post back in November when Sarah, my 3rd daughter, was in Evergreen showing her art at a local bank?  So many ladies and men were very gracious to her and supportive of her work.  Many commissioned her to do work for them.  Go to her post here to see one of her paintings she's working on.  I love it.  Sarah met a lot of men and women whom I've known for a very long time.

My sister, Mary Ann, recently was in a conversation with some of these same ladies regarding a recipe of Mother's.  It is for Christmas Bread.  Mother found the recipe in 1965 in a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.  She made it for the first time that year and made it every Christmas after that - until I began making it when I was married and living on my own.  She retired from making it sometime after that I suppose.  She used to make it and give it away as gifts to friends.  It's a delicious bread and it was a part of our Christmas morning breakfast from 1965 to 2005.  2006 was the first year I didn't make it.  I was just too tired that year and too distracted and kept putting it off and it didn't get made.  Ironically, and I didn't intend this, it was the first Christmas Mother wasn't with us.  She had died in April of 2006.

So - as a thank you to many of these dear ladies who are so much a part of my past and who were so kind to my Sarah - I have come down here to make this bread - today - and tomorrow Mary Ann and I are having them over for Coffee, Bread, Brown Sugar Crusted Bacon (delicious recipe), and a little "Old Fashioned Fruitcake".  I love fruitcake and this that I make - well, Mother once told me it tasted like the kind her grandmother used to make.  My cousin Susan told me it tasted like the kind her grandmother used to make.  I took those as the best compliments, as if I had been awarded a special recognition of some sort.

What I've been doing all day.  I made the recipe 3 times.

One recipe makes two wreaths or four loaves.

I made 2 wreaths and 8 loaves.  After the coffee they each get to 

go home with some Christmas Bread.

Mary Ann and I had to run out this evening for a few more items 

at their grocery store, Food Giant.

When we returned her house smelled like a bakery.

Yummmmm.

Mary Ann's Kitchen where I've been most of the day.

I have four more loaves in the oven, 

then I'll decorate them

and I'll be done.

Now we can have the party tomorrow.

December First

wow - I decided to look at last year's post, on December 1st, 2009

December 2nd told more about what was happening on December 1st.

If you care to, here is the link to go to.

I'll give you a hint (Sarah, had you forgotten?)

Sarah's senior show was in Auburn on December 1st.

and (Ann, had you forgotten?)

Andrew's surgery was on December 1st.

Here we are a year later.

And I read this from Of First Importance this morning - as you experience this season of Advent and hopefully celebrate His first coming and look forward with great anticipation to His second coming - the best gift -

“In the cross God demonstrates the deepest law of acceptance. For to be convinced that I have been accepted, I must be convinced that I have been accepted at my worst. This is the greatest gift an intimate relationship can offer — to know that we have been accepted and forgiven in the full knowledge of who we are, an even greater knowledge than we have about ourselves. This is what the cross offers.”


and let me add this from Romans 8 to grasp the sending of Jesus as a baby child through Mary's womb, with Joseph by her side and her only help,  and all that that involved.


Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.  And so He condemned sin in sinful man,  in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 
 Romans 8: 1-4

I Don't Do Christmas Ahead of Time

I don't. 

I want to do Thanksgiving, thoroughly.

One year I tried to shop for Christmas early, and I did - but I ended up spending more money than I should because I still shopped even more during the season - so I just always start shopping after Thanksgiving. and usually I'm late on that also - especially since I no longer have to play Santa Claus.

So - I said all of that to say this....

I'm behind on the real meaning of Christmas.  

Which brings me to this and I want you to remember.

Yesterday was the first Sunday in Advent.

It begins the season when we celebrate that Christ came into the world, that if we have believed in Him and trusted Him as Lord and Savior, then He has come into us, and that He will come again.

It's a Holy Season - It's Christmas.  The word was originally Christ's Mass - which refers to the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

so I looked up Mass in reference to the church - 

Mass comes from the latin word, "missa" (dismissal)

The word dismissal suggests a mission.

It's about carrying on Jesus' mission.

so - Christmas, Christ's mass, would be Christ's mission.

He came into the world to redeem us - save us - deliver us - make us clean and clothe us in His righteousness.  Therein, we have hope and joy - and so much to celebrate.