December 25, 2006
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Matthew 25:37-45 Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night
We had the most special Christmas that I have had in years! I woke up kinda bummed because my youngest daughter, Shannon, was not with us. This is her first Christmas away, she is in Turkey. We, however, had a great day together……. my wife, Kelly; my daughter, Jessica; and her fiancé, Mike. Then Shannon called from Turkey and listened as we opened up gifts….we shared this really long distance Christmas….so we were kind of all together after all. Isn’t technology cool! but the rest of the day I was kinda bummed. It was just somehow different not having all the family right here together on such a special day.
But tonight…..well tonight, we had the best Christmas ever! Another family and ours (Andrea, Dave and their daughter Katie) met some friends, Alan, Brian and Michael, where they live….deep in the woods. We took ham sandwiches, gifts, potato salad, and steaming hot wassail. They had a really neat Christmas tree, punch, chips and pretzels and stuff and we just all sat around laughing, talking, and having the best time. We shared stories from our past, hopes for our future and stories from the everyday grind…..joking and laughing the whole time. It’s been raining all day here in Florida so it was pretty wet, but that couldn’t keep us from having fun. As darkness began to fall, Brian lit little candles under glass jars for illumination that would withstand the slow drizzle of rain. It was wet and cool, yet my heart hasn’t felt so warm as it did tonight. You see, when you meet with friends and share conversation and laughter….it’s always warm. The highlight of the night was at the end when we prayed…..I felt the Holy Spirit right there with us in a mighty way…….Andrea started to pray….then I said a little….then Dave……then Brian…..Michael and Alan……we all lifted our hearts up to to the Lord in thanks for a special day and special friendships. We were all especially thankful for the time we share together and the gift that God gave each of us in His Son, Jesus. So….tonight, we had the best Christmas ever!
My prayer is that each of you has a very special year in 2007. God has blessed us with so much!
<< — Mike
Andrea and Dave –>>
Comments (7)
Merry Christmas!
Sounds really special. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas.
A Merry Christmas to you, too.
Sounds like an awesome Christmas!
God is definately GOOD and I am so very thankful for that. I pray that you guys have a wonderful year ahead of you as well!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I got teary-eyed reading about your prayers together. What a wonderful day!
My Christmas Eve was the best of my life. I can’t blog about it because I need to remain anonymous, but I can say that the candlelight service moved me more than anything Christmas yet.
Blessings!
I am so glad that your Christmas ended up joyous. Hard to have a person so far away.
Heather
ryc Mrs. Darcy (and all)- Thank you for your warm wishes
Mrs. Darcy, I got teary eyed too…..this was a small homeless camp we visited to bring Christmas cheer on Christmas day. I teared up when Michael looked at us and said “I just want to thank you all for just treating us like we exist”. I find it’s really not that hard to treat people like they exist……we had allot of fun and had a great time laughing and talking together. When we prayed…..when they prayed for us…..the spirit moved in a mighty way! God bless!