12.24.14 Our Christmas 2014

It’s certainly been a busy Christmas season! First our home church’s Children’s Choir sang and spoke words of Christmas where Christ is center stage. Then Trinity’s wonderful Adult Choir shared their love for the Lord through Christmas music.

We joined Madisyn, Liz, Billy and Josh at River Rock Church in Loranger last week to watch the Loranger Christmas parade, enjoying hot chocolate, jambalaya and cupcakes and a lot of pretty Christmas floats and trucks. These small towns around Amite are wonderful family towns and this church is a special place reaching the locals for Christ.

Our family Christmas time with Chip, Kim, Madisyn, Braxton and Bentley was the highlight of this season. We shared dinner together at Chip’s and then enjoyed watching the children and grandchildren open their presents. Braxton and Bentley didn’t stop playing all evening with their John Deere dump truck and tractor. They pushed them around everywhere. Madisyn loved all her presents and even started on coloring the backpack we gave her. She and Kim did a great job on the part they did that evening! Roy and I loved the presents we got from Chip and Kim but above all else we loved the time we spent with our little family. Kim surprised Chip with tickets to see the New Orleans Saints play the Atlanta Falcons Sunday in the Mercedes Benz Superdome. We won’t go into how that game turned out but the experience of watching the Saints in the Superdome is unforgettable and I’m so thankful she thought to do this for him.

Last weekend we went with Chip and Kim to see the production of One Night in Bethlehem. Calvary Christian Church and other local churches put this production on each year but this was our first time seeing it. A bus picked us up at the church and took us to the site where the production was presented. We started out in the line leading up to where the Census was taken (just like in the Bible!) followed by several tents representing various authentic aspects of Biblical times (fishing net maker, apothecary, etc.) We even got to take home a tiny bit of Frankincense, just like the Wise Men brought to baby Jesus. There was a waiting time for our turn to go on the journey through Bethlehem so we enjoyed hot chocolate and visiting with one another.

https://rosalynandroy.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/20141220_194110.jpg They make wonderful use of an old closed Interstate rest area to stage each of the scenes in the production. Ginormous 18 wheeler flatbeds with sides holding 60 chairs each took us on the journey from before Christ was born to his birth and a short sermon by Pastor Mike Bush at the end.

Sweet Madisyn was in her first Christmas play/musical at River Rock Church in Loranger last Sunday morning. It was a wonderfully done production of Jeremy the Mailman. All of the songs were secular Christmas songs changed to Christian words. It was very enjoyable and of course we thought Madisyn shined throughout the presentation. One of the funniest things in the show was the two boys who dressed up like the church’s two pastors. They are both bald and the little boys wore matching clothes and a hosiery like covering on their heads to make them appear bald. The first picture here shows the boys next to their look a like pastors. Afterwards we were treated to some delicious sausage chicken gumbo, turkey, potato salad and red velvet cupcakes. This church sure eats well!!!!

In between all this we’ve been picking out things for the new house, meeting with our contractor and doing a lot of yard work clearing out things. On Christmas Eve day Roy added to the RV patio a step down so that when the concrete is poured it will be there. Not in the original plan so he did the work himself. We both got cortisone injections on Monday. Roy’s was in his knee which is flaring up from the physical work he’s doing out here. Mine was in my shoulder from what may be a small rotator cuff tear. The shot will hopefully ease the popping sharp pain I feel when raising my arm over my head or behind me. Us old folks got fixed up so we can keep working on clearing out the brush and small trees.

Christmas Eve was spent at our home church, Trinity Baptist, for our Christmas Eve Worship Service. I always look forward to that service because whole families come to church together. It’s how it’s meant to be and I’m so thankful that we go to a church that still does this. Seeing the children gather around the last Advent candle being reminded of the true meaning of Christmas is precious to me. Chip, Kim, Braxton and Bentley joined us there which just made our Christmas Eve perfect!

This Christmas season has been filled with many blessings!