Tuesday 4~ Holiday Thoughts

 Holiday Thoughts

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 which you can do any day of the week you want! No time limit.
It's frigid across Canada and America and winter is early this year.
There are only a few days left until Christmas...how are you spending this time?


1.What are you up to in preparation for the holidays?

Too much to write about! LOL. This last week is filled with a lot of little things that keep me busy.  Tonight our choir has the dress rehearsal for our Christmas Cantata, "Christmas Forever Amen". We will record tonight's rehearsal for our website, but it won't show up until Sunday morning. I will post a link to it next week. I pray it will go well. We've worked really hard on it!

Oh, there's me and my other alto friend now! We are practicing our duet that is in one of the songs of the cantata! LOL.

I've been finishing up my shopping, and now begins the great wrapping marathon...I will  have to break it up into segments so I don't wear out my back. 

HERE is a link to how that goes from a post from the past. It's pretty much the same thing every year...

And yes, I am working on Christmas cards, little by little. Not as many are going out this year just because I'm having some issues with my back again, and sitting for long periods of time and writing is difficult. So I try to do a few every day as I can.

The little family at Pamela's Victorian Cottage has been busy finishing up their decorations and getting their house all ready for Christmas:

Oh, and some dear soul gave them some kittens, so that adds to the merriment! You can can that the little Mother is perplexed by yet another addition to her large family!

The girls have been busy hanging wreaths and other decorations outside as well as inside the house:

And it looks like they are just in time, because already there's some guests knocking at the front door!

Oh! Those are the little angels who come down to visit every Christmas and help make the season bright!

Remember what is says in the Bible about entertaining strangers:

Hebrews 13:2 NKJV

2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, 

for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.

I think it is a good idea to remember that especially during the Christmas season, because God may be sending special messengers to us to encourage and bless us in some way, and perhaps they could be "angels unawares", like the old King James Version says of this verse:

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

2. What is your absolute favorite holiday movie?

My favorite is The Bishop's Wife, with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven.

3. What are your hopes for this coming season?

That we will focus our thoughts and attention on Jesus, the real "Reason for the Season"...our Savior Who came down from heaven as a little baby to grow up to live and teach us how to live, and to die for us so that we would know how to die and live for eternity with Him in heaven.

4. Tell us your view on the great tea/coffee/hot chocolate debate and do you want it with fruitcake or cookies? Come on own up!!

I wasn't aware that there was a great tea/coffee/hot chocolate debate?  For me, it is always tea first, and hot Ovaltine as needed!  I don't drink coffee in any form, and can't drink regular hot chocolate, but the Ovaltine does not affect me the way chocolate does.  I do like home made fruitcake. My mother in law made a very good fruitcake, loaded with nuts and fruit. That cake probably weighed 10 lbs. when she was done with it, but it was very good.  I've only made it once and took some to my mother in law when she was in the nursing home, and true to course, she told me I didn't do it the way she did, but she ate it anyway and I think she was pleased that I at least tried.  I did tweak it a bit and used butter instead of "oleo" in the recipe.  I personally liked it better, but she knew right away that something wasn't right! She was very sharp right up until the end at age 95!

Here is her recipe, in her own handwriting.  It says "Nell Bateman's Fruit Cake Recipe", so apparently she borrowed the recipe from her friend Nell. To me it will always be "Vivian R. Steiner's Fruitcake Recipe"

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I hope you've enjoyed this Advent Window for Day 17! Thank you, Annie, for coming up with these questions for our Tuesday 4 each week.  Praying that you and yours will have a blessed and joyful continued Christmas season!!