These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...The Christmas Collection

Uh, make that a few of my favorite Christmas posts. I must have been caught up in The Sound of Music!

No Snow for Christmas this Year...

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. I spoke for a women’s program at church, hosted a dinner for widows and widowers at my house, and on December 18 recognized my forty-seventh wedding anniversary by having close friends over for my annual Christmas caroling party. {This will be the fifth Christmas Tom is  celebrating with Jesus in heaven.}

I digress. As I was thinking about this post and my post for next week I looked back over the posts I’ve made these past seven years. Yes, in January, A Novel Creation will be SEVEN YEARS OLD!

Three of my Christmastime posts stood out. All three were popular with readers and all three were favorites of mine. I decided to share these posts with you and to tell you why I chose them. 

The first appeared on my blog in December of 2013 and was cleverly titled “Christmas.”  It is a childhood memory. I was five years old and convinced I was getting my very own BB gun for Christmas. And no, I had never seen the movie A Christmas Story. In fact I never heard of it or Ralphie until I lived in Kosovo last Christmas. I lead a sheltered life. (sigh)

The big take-away from the experience were simple truths I learned from my Uncle Noah that Christmas. I only recently connected them to the way we are instructed to live our lives in Romans 12. It was a good reminder that we not only learn from others, but others are learning from us.  To read “Christmas” CLICK HERE.

The second post I chose for this collection of favorites is called “The Candle.” I had a lot of readers for this one even though it is probably a bit melancholy. It is the story of the wedding candle Tom gave me as a gift. We were married exactly one week before Christmas. We burned that candle every anniversary. The last time I burned it was for his funeral. The candle that was supposed to last twenty-five years lasted for forty-three. And it could probably last another twenty or thirty years. If you’re in the mood for a good cry, I guess this one is for you. CLICK HERE to read “The Candle” first posted in December of 2015.

Finally, I chose “The Christmas Gift” as the third and final post for this collection. This is a personal favorite. It is the story of spending Christmas in Kosovo away from my family. There is something there…something beneath the surface that I didn’t recognize until I reread this post a few days ago. It speaks to healing and strength. I know living in Europe so far from my family was in many ways challenging, but as I reread this post, I could see how much I grew during that time. I realized there is a big difference between being alone and being lonely. To read “The Christmas Gift,” CLICK HERE.

Well, that’s it… My three gifts to you. Gifts to encourage you to live a life where you treat others with respect and love. Gifts to remind you that our time on earth is short and we need to hold those we love close each day. Gifts to give you pause to reflect on the greatest gift ever given to us by God…His Son.

All Already Given…Yours to Receive.

And once you’ve read and sighed and commented…take a deep breath and find peace in this season of your life. Merry Christmas!