Whitney reading to her Gramma the Christmas Eve devotional from, Jesus Calling.

Liza wondering if she’ll get a new box to sleep in on Christmas Eve.

Traditional Christmas Eve foods – Senate Bean soup, cheese ball  and crackers and Peppermint Punch.



Her wish came true!

I hope your wishes came true, too! 

From the parsonage windows,

It’s Christmas Eve!  I’ll bet there are all kinds of yummy smells coming from many homes today!  I made my traditional Senate Bean Soup on Saturday; we’ll enjoy that tonight. 

Picture from Kraft Foods

We’ll also have this Cheese Ball. I make it every year.  This recipe came from my Kraft Cookbook years ago.  It’s very simple to put together and is so good.  I can’t think of trying another recipe!

For Sunday dinner yesterday I made a recipe of my mom’s that is a showstopper, in my opinion.  It’s called Herbed Chicken Breasts.  If you can look closely at the picture above, you’ll see this fantastic herb cream cheese filling oozing out of the chicken.  This makes the chicken breasts moist and packed with flavor.

Here’s how it’s done:

Cut a pocket in 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. 

Create the cheese filling:
1/2 tsp (I use more) parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme
1 Tbl lime juice (I only had lemon today and it was great)
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
Mix well.
Put cheese mixture into each pocket of chicken breasts. 

Mix:
1 egg
1 Tbl milk
Dip each piece of breast in egg wash, then roll in soft bread crumbs (I used Panko)

Melt 3, 4 Tbl margarine and 2,3 Tbl of olive oil over medium heat.  Brown each breast in skillet until nicely browned on each side. 

Transfer to baking sheet and bake 40 – 45 minutes in moderate oven, 350 degrees.  To bake this while I was at church, I covered the baking sheet with foil and baked it at 250 degrees for 2 hours.

You may not need this recipe today, but you’ll want it for a New year’s dinner party, or sometime you want to make something really special.  I served this with baked sweet potatoes and green beans.  Yummo…wish there was leftovers.  Ha!  There was NONE left! One taste and you’ll know why!

What traditional foods will you make today or tomorrow?  That creates such special memories for your family.  Enjoy the day as you celebrate the birth of our Savior – Immanuel, God with us.  What a blessing!

Merry Christmas!

Is it snowing where you are today?  The ground is covered here with the white confectionery and it’s beautiful! 

Even though we pretty much have to stay in anyway, I’m going to try to refresh our hearts today by taking advantage of the weather.  I’m going to make today a snowy theme.

Picture from TipJunkie

Snowman shaped pancakes are on the menu for breakfast.   I have snowflake napkins I bought this week that I’ll use for our meals.  I think I’ll also sneak into my Mother-in-law’s room while she’s asleep and put several of my adorable snowmen in there that I’ve collected over the years. Too bad Buddy the Elf isn’t here to make a snowflake garland for us, but I think that movie is another activity for her day!

How will you freshen up your day today?  Will you take advantage of the weather and make a theme for your family?  Will you have a special early Christmas activity with your little ones?  There are tons of great sites out there to help.  Do a little research and then refresh your spirits by having some good ol’ fun today!

I’ll never forget the afternoon my husband and I were traveling down a two lane road towards the lake. As we passed a field grown over with high grasses, we noticed an woman who was in distress. She had tried to walk across the tall grass and her feet got tangled up. She was literally unable to move. We stopped and my husband pulled at the stubborn weeds around her feet until she was freed. He then set her upright again and she was able to walk to her destination. The truth is, an unmarked path is hard to follow. Had that dear lady been on a cleared trail, she wouldn’t have had nearly the trouble.

When you and I are walking through trials, the path is clearly marked for us. Many have gone ahead of us, showing us the way to respond. It’s easy for me to think I’m the “Daniel Boone” on this pathway of trouble; marking out a way that none have gone before. How foolish. Again, James 1 reminds me, “Count it all joy.” Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always. Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always. All. Always. Not 99% so I can save 1% for self pity or sympathy from others.

This doesn’t mean we jump up and down and thank God for Cancer, divorce, murder, natural disasters or rebellion. It means we choose to thank the Lord in the midst of those things or while we’re going through them.

I have to stop and look at my current trial and see what the joys the Lord is bringing into my life because of it. I list these here as a testimony so I won’t forget:

• A special bond between my mother-in-law and myself
• Unity in the heart of our congregation as many have rallied to support us
• Time at home caring for her needs, rather than in the hospital
• Opportunities to witness and share testimony of God’s goodness
• A greater dependence on the Lord
• Time to reflect about heaven

If you’re going through a trial, I encourage you to stop and reflect on the joys that you can count, even through your tears.

The path we must walk in trials is clearly marked – Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!

The hissing of the oxygen concentrator is steady, and lulls my mother-in-law to sleep.  I slip in and pull the sheet over her shoulders and turn off the light.  Then lying down in my bed, the monitor in both our rooms in the “on” position, I hear the machine’s hissing, and also her breathing and frequent cough.  I whisper a prayer for her comfort and a good night’s rest for her.  These are the sounds of Christmas in the parsonage this year. 

Some say, “What a terrible time to have a loved-one so sick, here at Christmas.”  I’ll admit that Christmas in the parsonage is usually filled with a different kind of activity – the celebratory kind.  It would include parties, a hot oven putting out all kinds of confectioneries, and a calendar crammed more full than a New York subway at rush hour. 

I also admit that this year will be a different sort of Christmas in the parsonage.  Already it hasn’t been the normal routine of Christmas movies, cantatas, drives through the country to see the lights, or even baking sugar cookies with colored sprinkles.  Instead it’s been about giving our time to my mother-in-law, who has little time left. It’s not been about what I want for Christmas, but about what she needs. Instead of harried schedules, we find ourselves taking time to sit and chat, to ask questions of her, for our own memory’s sake.  “Remind me again how you and Dad met.”  “Tell me about the day you trusted Christ as your Savior.”  We talk about heaven, the things we know from Scripture, and the things we imagine will be waiting for us there.  We sing, we read, we laugh, we cry. 

It is for all this and all other kinds of suffering that our Savior came.  He was born a babe in a manger in order to give us hope for eternity – for what lies ahead that we cannot see.  We know that heaven’s shore is just beyond, and for that we rejoice.  This is why we have Christmas.  This is why Jesus died – to redeem us and give us a relationship with God.  He makes sense of all the suffering in our lives. 

So, really, perhaps Christmas is the best time to suffer.  We have all around us the reminder that Christ came to prevent our eternal suffering, and to keep our current suffering in perspective. 

Looking into my mother-in-law’s room and watching her sleep, I remind myself that this (suffering) is why He came.  It will be worth it all when she sees Jesus.  And just think, she could see Him very soon!  Yes, this is why He came.  Merry Christmas, Mom C.

From my parsonage windows,