Snowstorm, St. Lucia, and an Anniversary

 Star of Wonder, Star of Light

Hi friends,

I hope you all had a good weekend. We got a snowstorm that came in on Saturday and left us with quite a bit of snow, and still snowing Sunday morning as we made our way to church. I can't even tell you how blessed I was by the Christmas program/play put on by the children and young people of our church. And then I found out that the script was written by our pastor. It was all about Jesus, our rescuer - who frees us not only from death and hell, but from ourselves - our pride and self-righteousness, and our fear and guilt - in spite of the constant voices of condemnation we hear in our own heads - so that at last we can have peace with God.

Jesus is King. He is Lord of all creation. He is our Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. We look to him, not ourselves, for our Hope. Hope in this life and in the life to come.

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The photo below is in B&W simply because after I made the collage, I realized that the only color was in the lights on the tree. Everything else was gray or shades thereof, so the photos of the tree on the porch looked out of place. Hence, they were turned to B&W as well.

December 13 (tomorrow) is not only Mr. C.'s and my wedding anniversary, but also the date of the Battle of Fredericksburg in America's Civil War (and I'll resist the strong temptation to turn this into a post about General James Longstreet, (General Lee's senior subordinate officer), BUT, it is also St. Lucia's Day.

 My St. Lucia doll
from Cousin Bobby

From 'Christmas in Sweden,'

'Around Christmas time in Sweden, one of the biggest celebrations is St. Lucia's Day (or St. Lucy's Day) on December 13th. The celebration comes from stories that were told by Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden.

'St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name.'

P.S. The story goes that my paternal grandfather Nelson was born on the ship on the way to the United States, as his parents emigrated from Sweden.

 The darling little granddaughter above is now 18 years old.
I took this photo in 2005, during a St. Lucia program.

 And the sweetie in the pink PJs above actually is named Lucia,
our littlest granddaughter, photo taken by her mama this month.
The happy boy (bottom left)  is her cousin, whom she adores, kneeling beside
the Christmas tree in their home - photo sent to me by his dad.

Fortunately, we will get to see both of these kids and their families during the next month. I am so looking forward to that! And did you notice those sweet kitties??

 Mr. C. and his wife

Passport photos from 1989. And we'd already been married for eons!

Happy Anniversary, Mr. C.

I'd still rather spend time with you than with anyone else! 

One year we actually had plans to celebrate our anniversary on the battlefield at Fredericksburg, but plans fell through due to one of the kids getting sick. Doesn't everyone celebrate their wedding anniversary on a battlefield? I was greatly disappointed. (Happy to say that yes, the child recovered, but still...)

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Linking to Mosaic Monday 

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