Monday Monday and Tuesday 4: Christmas!

 Good Morning Everyone! It's another Monday Monday!! The last Advent Monday before Christmas! Hard to believe Christmas is just one week from today!  Our Tuesday 4 meme is all about Christmas, so I will save some of my thoughts to share within that format, which will follow my Monday thoughts.  I figure I might as well do both posts in one today because the rest of the week is going to get pretty busy and I probably won't have much time for writing.  

Here in Florida we had a humdinger of a kind of tropical storm over the weekend. Massive amounts of rain and wind moved onshore from the Gulf of Mexico and pretty well flooded the whole state of Florida all night Saturday.  By Sunday morning the rain had mostly stopped, but then the wind picked up and the gusts were quite strong.  Thankfully we didn't have any major damages, just a few dead tree limbs fallen to the ground and lots of leaves from the trees.  Still Waters Pond filled up nicely after the at least 4" of rain that we received in a 24 hour period!  Here are some sunset pictures I took last night after the storm had finally abated:

If you look at this one above, you can see where the water has come up above the grasses along the shore. That area had become fairly dry before the storm, so now the pond is full and happy again!

I loved how the skies went from fiery orange to gray in just a matter of minutes.

More clouds rolled in ...

And very soon we had a black and white sunset!

But I thought it was still very beautiful in a very dramatic way...

Thankfully by then the winds had died down and all was calm and still somewhat bright...

We give thanks to the Lord for His protection during this storm. With all the big trees we have around here it could have been much much worse. I know places down along the southwest coast of Florida did get a lot of tidal surge and damaging flood waters. We pray for those who have suffered in the wrath of this storm.

Meanwhile, yesterday morning the sun was shining enough for people to come out to church and give their thanks to God.  Unfortunately, my hubby has gotten a bad cold/cough and had to stay home. Quite a few people have had this "crud" around our church/community here lately...even our Pastor and his wife were sick for about a week. I am praying that I don't get it. Our son Benton also had it, but so far neither Rose nor I have come down with it. Please pray that we don't...Christmas is coming...and there's still too much to be done to get sick...and we have some very special guests joining us on Christmas day for dinner...someone that you may know, so PLEASE pray we are all well for Christmas!

Because my hubby couldn't go to Sunday School or Church yesterday, guess who got to teach our Adult Sunday School class?  Yep, yours truly!  I don't usually teach, but I do help and give support in our lessons each week.  Normally if my hubby can't go our Pastor will fill in for him, but because he's been under the weather all last week too, we didn't want to burden him with having to prepare a lesson on short notice. So I came up with a lesson that I've been wanting to do for a long time.  

I wonder how many of you are a fan of "Handel's Messiah"?  If so, you are probably aware that every song is actually a recitation of Scripture...Here is a list.  So for our lesson, we went through each of the scripture references listed (but only made it through Part 1 this week), and discussed their significance in order of the prophecies given in the Old Testament and prophecies fulfilled in the New Testament, in the birth of Jesus Christ.  It became a very interesting and enjoyable discussion. I was thankful that the Pastor was in our class to help give more insight and history when difficult questions came up.  As I said, we only made it through the first part, which is primarily the part of Handel's Messiah that pertains to Christmas, but everyone in class said they would like to continue this study next week to finish it if we can.  So I told hubby about it when I got home and he was happy with that...so we will continue next week.  Oh, one of our Christmas traditions here in our home is to listen to Handel's Messiah at some time during the Advent season.  We found the best performance on YouTube videos with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  

Speaking of choirs and music, yesterday morning in our church service was our Children's program. It was wonderful, as children's Christmas programs always are.  

Here is a "promotional video" of some of the music...you can listen to this if you want and get the idea of what these kids were singing and doing in the pictures below...

The group was a little smaller than usual, but they did a fantastic job. Here are a few pictures from their performance:

As children's programs go, you know this was super special and wonderful.  They definitely got a standing ovation at the end!

And so now let's move on to the Tuesday 4 meme, which is all about Christmas!

Christmas

 Hi there. It's time for another of Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4...

Christmas is next week...Let's talk a bit about it, okay?


1. Are you excited for Christmas to come?

Yes, I am always excited about Christmas, even if I seem to be a bit rattled from time to time about everything that needs to get done, I LOVE Christmas and everything about it.

2. What do you look forward to on Christmas?

Mostly the time spent with loved ones and friends.   And this year we will have some very special guests joining us for the day in addition to our immediate local family. Some of you may know our special guests, Linda and her hubby Dave from Just Simply Linda blog fame, so please keep praying we all stay well!  Linda and Dave live just about an hour's drive from us, and we have met several times in the past since they moved to Florida from NY about a year and a half ago. It will be a very blessed time together.  Also our local friend Pamela will be here, as she is a "snow-bird" from CT, and has no family here.

3. What will Christmas Eve find you doing?

On Christmas Eve morning, which is a Sunday, we will be in church as usual. Our choir will be performing our Christmas Cantata, which is entitled "The Christmas Story".  We will have our dress rehearsal this Tuesday night and it will be recorded, but the recording won't be available until Sunday, so hopefully I can share it with you then. Please pray for our singers that we will all stay healthy and be able to sing!!   And then on Christmas Eve night we also a have a Candlelight Service at church, and so we will be there for that, Lord willing.

4. What will be on the menu for Christmas?

This year we are doing something a little different, but not really. We have done this before and it is always a hit...we are having lasagna for Christmas dinner! This was a suggestion by our guests, who said they wanted to bring it with them...and of course we all thought that would be wonderful, and we will also be making a pan of lasagna here, along with salad and garlic bread.  Dessert? Well, I don't know yet...we'll see what we come up with.  After eating a lasagna dinner I never have room for dessert, but I'm sure we can't get away with no desserts...so there will be something I am certain...LOL.

From Annie, our Tuesday 4 Hostess: "Since Christmas will come before the next Tuesday 4, I wish you a blessed and very merry Christmas."   (This picture is one of our Tuesday 4 hostess Annie's creations...isn't is lovely? She is very gifted)

"Angels say what???"

Luke 2:8-14

8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 

9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 

10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 

11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”