Monday Evening Christmas Vignettes

 Good Monday Evening!  December Mondays are busy days for us...since we are helping out at Dixie Cottage most every other day (except Sunday and Monday), Monday is really the only day we have to get caught up on things at home or otherwise. Today my goal was to get the Christmas tree set up and decorated. I started the day out full of vim and vigor and eager to get going. Hubby helped me get the tree in place and put together, and then he had to leave for an appointment. No problem. I am used to putting on the lights by myself. I've done it for years. Once in a blue moon our son Scott has taken that job over, but he's not living here anymore, and so I am technically on my own.  Things were going fine with the first strand of lights, and the second...and then from then on all of the strands of lights that we had, which were working just fine last year, were no longer working. I couldn't believe it...I had to throw away about 4 or 5 strings of lights!  I know, there's supposed to be a way to change a bulb or fix a fuse or something, but I've never had much luck with that and since lights aren't really all that expensive, I decided it was time to get some new lights obviously!  So that job of decorating got put on hold until hubby came home and we could go to the closest Dollar General store to get some new lights. Which we did, but they had very few boxes of the correct lights left. I guess everyone needed new lights this year! Must have been defective lights last year (although honestly most of mine were probably several years old).  So I purchased what they had and hoped it would be enough.  Therefore I spent the afternoon putting on the lights and by then I was exhausted and ready for a nap! (I'm still not 100% running on all cylinders yet from my bug of the past two weeks I guess).  Finally, after supper I was able to start putting on a few ornaments, but had to take a break from that to wash dishes and now my back is tired and I'm sitting down so I can write to you and read some posts from many of you.  The tree can wait until tomorrow to get finished...after we get back home from Dixie Cottage, if I am feeling energetic enough...this might end up being an all week project! LOL.  So here's what it looks like now, with mostly just lights and a few ornaments:

It does have plenty of lights now...that's for certain!  Once it is all finished we will cover the bottom with a white sheet and then one evening this week our kids Benton and Rose are going to come over and we will do our new tradition of setting up the train set and village together. We will miss having Scott here to help out as he is the most agile one of the whole bunch to get down there on the floor and put things together, but we will manage somehow.

So I named this post "Monday Evening Christmas Vignettes".  

vi·gnette

/vinˈyet/

noun: vignette; plural noun: vignettes 

1.a brief evocative description, account, or episode. "a classic vignette of embassy life"

2.a small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border.

3.a small ornamental design filling a space in a book or carving, typically based on foliage.

So these pictures will be "a small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border", but also a "brief evocative description, account or episode" of our Christmas decorations in our home, which I have also been working on and are pretty much done except for finishing the tree and the train village, which I will definitely share once it is complete. Once you see all of this you will know why my back hurts and I'm so tired. LOL.   

I will start with the most important one, which you've already seen on last night's post:

Everything else is secondary to this.  We could just put out the Nativity Scene and be done with it, and it would definitely be Christmas.

But there are other little places here and there throughout our house that are getting ready for Christmas.  Everything is decorated with the purpose of getting ready for Christmas...the REAL Christmas, the Birth of our Savior and Lord.  Everything else is in preparation for that all important event.

We'll start with the little family in Pamela's Victorian Cottage:

They have decorated their tree and there are gifts wrapped and ready. Some of the children are dressed in their Christmas outfits, and even the more angelic members of the family are in place and ready for their part in the grand event of announcing Christ's birth!

The woodland creatures and the Carolers are all getting ready to sing Carols of Praise

As they "Let Heaven and Nature Sing"

The Martin Sisters are gathered around the piano and are tuning their voices to sing along as well...

There are a couple of Santas preparing to join in the happy song...

The angels are gathered around the Tea Cup tree, tuning their instruments as well...

Oh, we mustn't forget the snowmen and reindeer and folks at the Cabin preparing for the exciting events about to unfold...

And here's Lily Grace and her lovely friends Rebecca, Valerie, Margie, and Anne (of Green Gables!) all gathered to celebrate Jesus' Birthday! They've even baked a cake!

Mustn't leave out our dear Baby Elva...She all dressed and ready for the celebration, and enjoying looking at the pretty tree...

Oh, I see the word "Believe" on the tree...do you? Do you Believe? I believe...I believe that Christmas is all about Jesus...it's all about His love reaching out to us when we were lost and without hope...and God saw our sins and fears and anxieties and confusion in life, and He knew there was only one way to rescue us...

He sent Jesus, His only Begotten Son, to come to earth as a little child, Who would grow to be a man, pure and holy and sinless...and He would be the only spotless Lamb of God who could take away the sins of the earth...

John 1:29 

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Revelation 5:11-12

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, 

the living creatures, and the elders; 

and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,

12 saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

To receive power and riches and wisdom,

And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And that's what Christmas is all about...Jesus left the splendor of heaven to come to earth to rescue me and you and all who will believe. He was the precious pure and spotless Lamb of God, who came to rescue me,  a smelly and dirty lost sheep...because He loved me.

Yes, that's what all the excitement is about! That's why we decorate and celebrate and give gifts and sing songs of praise and joy!

It's all about Jesus...it's all about the Lamb.

Amen.