Merry Christmas friends!

 

I have loved many things this Christmas... Being in the choir and getting to practise Christmas songs all fall. Hosting the staff party. Having dinner with my siblings and their families and playing games and laughing and staying too late. Going to Christmas concerts. Giving gifts. Shopping. Various Christmas parties. Admiring all the lights everywhere. Candles.

But tonight, I went to the candlelight service at my church. It was quiet and lovely. We sang with just a piano and a guitar. The tone was rather hushed and reverent even. And I loved it most of all because it was the perfect way to usher in the quiet of Christmas. It's past midnight now, so its the early hours of Christmas day. We'll spend a quiet day at home with just the four of us. The rush is over. Merry Christmas friends!!

Second Chance

My mother got remarried at 73 years old and I think it is nothing but great! Make no mistake-my father was the great love of my mother's life. They were together for 47 years. They were happy and in love. She mourned him for 4 solid years. She told anyone who would listen about her loss, and how blessed she'd been. But after 4 years, she met someone new. Or not new exactly- she reconnected with an old aquaintance. And that meeting of a widow and a widower, who both loved God and music and family, turned into a second chance at love. How great is that?

It has been very interesting to see people's reactions though. A lot of people can't seem to let go of the past. I loved my father fiercely and would do anything to get him back. But, that love does not in any affect my feelings toward this new relationship. My father is not coming back. Happiness in this world is fleeting. If my mother has a second chance for happiness with a man who clearly loves her, how can that be anything but a blessing?

Sunrise

I did the Scripture reading at church this morning from Luke. I was particularly moved by the words from Luke 1:76-79: "because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace".

Wow, that's really beautiful. To think of the mercy and light of God being like a sunrise after the deep, dark of night. It's not hard to picture darkness, despair and death these days. There is just so much evil and suffering and injustice. But to picture the sun rising into the midst of that, the dark night ending and light dawning, that image is hope. That is the message of Christmas. Merry Christmas friends; the light has come. His kingdom is here, but also not yet fully. But, "one day everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost."

Anyone who knows me, knows I am not ever a morning person. But in Florida, when the colours of the sunrise wake you, you need to get up and take a picture.

Staff party

Lesley, in the middle, is the one who mopped for me and did many other wonderful things to help get ready and set up. Carolyn, on the left, is our most amazing support worker.

I hosted our staff party last night, which was crazy. I live in a townhouse and almost 30 people had rsvp'd as coming. I do not have space for 30 people on my main floor and I could hardly banish anyone to the basement (those people didn't sign up to come who I would've wanted down there anyway lol). But, our previous party hostess swtiched schools, everyone prefers a home over a restaurant, I live five minutes from school and I am on the social committee this year. So, I thought I would give it a go. 

My house was very full. There were people everywhere. But, the whole thing went very well. A couple of my closer teaching friends came early to help set up. The kitchen table was overflowing with appetizers. One of those same friends had actually come to mop and vacuum with me the night before. By the time the party started, everything was ready and the four of us who were early were sitting around chatting and sampling the appies. No mad, sweaty running around at the last minute.

Once the party got going, everyone was happily eating and chatting and taking photos at the silly photo booth I had set up. It was great. Dinner, which we had ordered in, arrived on time and was delicious.

The funny thing is that even though it was packed, everyone seemed to have a good time. A few had said they would only pop in for a few minutes and ended up staying through dinner and dessert too. The last guests left 5 hours after the party had started. It was fun and I would do it again.

The "early" crew.

Choir part 2

Our three Christmas concerts were this past Saturday and Monday. Yes, I am biased, but they were truly fantastic!! That is not to say that they were perfect, but pretty close. I ended up having 22 people come out to listen to the choir. About half had never heard the choir before and were blown away. One of them said: I am in love with your choir. Another commented that the choir was incredible. One critical newcomer commented to his neighbour after the first song: you're right, they ARE good! Pentti even came, although he doesn't like concerts, and admitted that it was very good. 

I was so excited to sing for so many of my friends, but also proud of how hard we had worked. We put in a lot of hours of practice and I think it was evident in the level of our preparedness. I was happy to have people come and be shocked. I loved seeing the reaction of one of my friends when we started singing; her jaw literally dropped, haha.

We also had fun with the choir members before, during and after the concerts. We spent a lot of time together. Saturday was a nine hour day. It was exhausting, but we had time to play card games and chat and go for dinner. I am really glad that I was in the choir in those years before COVID because back then we used to have a choir weekend retreat in Whistler and more social events. So, I got to know people pretty well. A lot of those same people are still in the choir so it feels like family. Maybe new people are able to feel that too and form bonds quickly, but that's hard for me. So, I feel fortunate that although this is my first year back, it is in fact my fourth year with a lot of the same people. What a joy to share the love of singing, the message of hope and the willingness to put in the effort to do it really well!!

Teaching in December

Teaching in December is crazy. But it's also fun. The report cards are written and go home on Monday. The students are hyper, done with school and needing a vacation. So why not add to the crazy by planning fun activities to keep them engaged. Today, we celebrated the end of our study of Mr Putter books. Since the character Mr Putter likes tea and english muffins, that is what our celebration called for as well. In the afternoon, we got together with two other classes to start a "Box, Not A Box" challenge, which involves turning a cardboard box into something more interesting. There were designs for spaceships and cars and castles and robots. Next week we do the crafting of the boxes. With my friend Lesley, we also set up math games and crafts and let the students choose their math activities for the week. It was pretty amazing how on-task they were and how much learning was happening. There was also a winter concert and pajama day and a staff meeting.This week also had crying support workers, teachers who quit, emergency chocolate, coffee and donuts, sobbing, screaming and lots of venting behind closed doors....It was a lot. I'm glad it's Friday.

Choir!

Me, Shelle and Dee last night

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you would know that I was thinking about rejoining choir this year. Well, I did it and I have no regrets!! Last night was our last dress rehearsal before next weekend's concerts. They are going to be SO AMAZING! There are some really great songs, the venue is the best, the band is top notch, Christmas downtown is amazing, I love Crystal, Gail and Tim (the soloists), I could go on and on. But speaking of Gail, she is our retiring director and an absolute musical genius and beautiful human being. She is the main reason I rejoined the choir this year in particular. To sing under her is a joy, even when she sometimes yells at us. If she didn't set high expectations the choir would not be what it is. Since she is retiring at the end of the season, it was now or never to rejoin the choir.

Sixteen of my friends (that I know of) are coming to the concerts and I am thrilled. They are spread out over the three (soldout) concerts, so I will have people at every concert. I hope they see and hear the joy of singing together, how amazing our director is, how encouraging the lyrics are, what hope we have in this season and that they leave feeling uplifted and joyful. I know I will. I can't wait!

Revelation

Since the summer, I have being doing a verse by verse study of the book of Revelation. I am surprised by what I have already learned and what I have had to unlearn. Growing up, I always thought (and heard preached) that Revelation was a book about the end times. That cracking the code of Revelation would give you a better idea of when Jesus would return. Although Revelation does in fact have details about the end times, that is not what it is primarily about.

First of all Revelation tells you in its first verses that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, knowing who he is. A beautiful picture is painted of Jesus, walking amongst the lampstands, which are revealed to be his church. The images of who he is are straight from the Old Testament. He holds the stars in his right hand, and yet he puts that same right hand on the shoulder of John (the writer) to comfort him. He is the one who loves us. He is the one who is sovereign over everything.

Second, a lot of people think that from chapter 4 onward, the events described are of the future, but if you look carefully, same or similar events are told in (7)cycles from different angles. If they are separate events, then Jesus returns in judgement many times instead of once, and that's just not true. I don't pretend to have it all figured out and I don't want to be dogmatic about my opinions either. What I do want to share and what surprises me most is how hopeful the book is. I have put off studying it for years because it seemed daunting and scary. I had heard that it was written to encourage the church and I had kind of thought, what does discouragement look like if this is someone's idea of encouragement. But I was wrong. Knowing and understanding that there is a cosmic battle going on is helpful in many ways. It tells us that other people are not the enemy. It tells us who sits on the throne in heaven. It reveals that the one who has the entire plan of world history in his right hand is also the one who chose to save us. As we enter the season of Advent today, I have never felt more profoundly the miracle of light entering the world. Of Jesus choosing to take on humble flesh in order to save us. 

So I stare at the twinkling lights on my tree and marvel at the Christmas story once again.