Snow, Snow and More

It is now Thursday the 16th and of course, we have seen some of you already who read our blog but for those we have not seen....we arrived home from Williamsburg, Virginia safely on Saturday, the 11th after 14 hours on the road and no snow.  Neither one of us could sleep on Friday night so we were up at 3:00 a.m. and on the road by 4:36 a.m. Saturday morning.  There was NO snow to deal with (although we did drive though areas that had snow), and absolutely NO holdup at the US/Canada border. Our front door had a Christmas wreath, the bannister was decorated and both trees had been put up.  It was so wonderful to walk into Christmas.  Casey, Lisa and our granddaughters, Charlotte and Amelia, had been having fun and we so delighted.  Joni Eareckson Tada calls these unexpected gifts omiages in her devotional book, Diamonds in the Dust.  In Japanese, it means "a little gift that you are not required to give, as for a special occasion."  It was such a special way to welcome us home. 



Our back yard

 The SNOW started during Saturday night sometime and did not stop until sometime Sunday night.  However, that did not deter us from heading to the 9 a.m. service on Sunday only to find out it was the Sunday School Pageant at 10:00.  John did a Tim Horton's run (coffee), we had an opportunity to chat with several of our friends at St. Andrew's, and thoroughly enjoyed the pageant.  The Sunday School children from both the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. service had combined and presented a wonderful rendition of the Christmas Story as only children can.

Last night we attended Charlotte's school Christmas pageant.  It brought back many memories of when our children were small, and we were showered again with omaiges by the performance.

Joni reminded us in the same devotional of how special the omiages are that God gives to us.  "He's not obligated to give us gifts.  He's not required to shower us with blessings."  He gives them all the time, but he gave us a special gift whose birth is celebrated in many countries on December 25th, his only begotten son, Jesus.   Praise God for this gift.