A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

You have to pretend that today is Dec. 23. I wanted to post this that day but life and Christmas intervened. Today is the first chance I have gotten (after wrestling the computer away from its other owner who was checking on golf course sites in Waco, TX). Tuesday brought yet another in a succession of storms and we were worried about Ellen even getting in through Milwaukee, from whence our storms were coming. At one point as we were waiting in the afternoon, we were enjoying our tree and some Christmas music as we looked out our bay window through the falling snow towards the day care center behind us. All of sudden, Chuck called out, "Hey, Karen, there's Santa Claus." Sure enough there he was saying goodbye to the kiddos and scraping the snow off his sleigh. Just what our believer needed to think that she would hear reindeer hooves on the roof in another night. You'll see evidence in this picture at the red dot! Finally, several hours later Ellen arrived and we had friends for dinner and games. An altogether beautiful day in the neighborhood, followed by a couple of others, celebrating not only the birth of the Christ Child but his many gifts as well. The weather prevented us from going to the Christmas Eve service, but the Christmas day service was another powerful worship experience. Merry Christmas!