Second CHRISTmas Day

Merry CHRISTmas everyone! Today is a calm one weather-wise, but tonight, we may not be so fortunate. The good news is that the temps are above freezing, finally; the bad news is that what’s melted and may come down will probably freeze and make for some very dramatic driving!

Yesterday morning was an awesome, awesome CHRISTmas Day service at First German, a single worship time which means instead of two services, as on Sundays, all who wished to attend did so at one time. That made greeting all the more delightful because otherwise I see only those who attend early worship on Sunday mornings. It’s almost like two separate churches, early service and late. That’s just the way it is. Anyway, the Festival Service was mainly all singing, congregational and choral, the pipe organ as well as the extra-sized orchestra as the college kids were home from school and could pitch in. Pastor mentioned that even some parents of the congregation joined the young people on their instruments and made a glorious noise to the Lord! Singing “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” with the orchestral accompaniment is just our way of singing “Happy Birthday” to the Savior King!!!

Lynn and Alayna sat with the family in the pew and simply went up front in the church when it was time for the choir to sing, as the loft was filled with the orchestra. It was good to actually see them sing instead of merely hearing them. Linda, too, of course, and other familiar faces. One of the ladies with whom I used to sing many years ago was sitting across the aisle from me, no longer a choir member, and I told her after church how fun it was to sing together again, even though we weren’t in the choir. We used to have so much fun, lots of giggles, when Mom paid me $2 a week to sing in the choir!!!

After worship, too, I spoke to the director of music from MLHS, telling him how much I enjoyed the concert on Tuesday night. I also told him of trying to get the drawl-prone little ones in G.S.’s Sunday school to sing “Go, Tell It On the Mountain”. He laughed and said he could only imagine how that sounded, and I told him that no matter how hard I tried to get them NOT to say “mowntaaan”, when they got into that refrain, all bets were off!

An aside: in communicating with a long, lost but recently reconnected friend in northern IL via facebook, it came out that she already has five grandchildren, and she’s younger than me!!! I told her that if Timmy hadn’t died, I’d yet have a child in grade school, which, when you think about it, seems bizarre. I guess the writing about Sunday school brought that little conversation to mind…….My mom got a CD with mainly Pachelbel’s Canon in D on it, and it’s playing right now in her living room as I write this---and it reminds me of Timmy’s “nap music”, which was Canon in D.

Kerry arrived at Mom’s in time to attend worship with us and made us so happy! She at first sat upstairs in order to see her little girl, Alayna, aged 16, singing with the choir, not realizing the choir was sitting in the “general population” downstairs. Eventually she came down and sat with the rest of us---four of my mom’s girls plus three of her grands all in one pew!

Once back from church, I got several phone calls including one from my friends, the Douglases, back in Orange Park. Carol wanted to wish us Merry CHRISTmas and tell about their worship services at G. S. Three of her grandsons were in the children’s portion of the service on Eve, as well as the rest of their Sunday school classes. She said all went well, and that they had 40 people in church on CHRISTmas Day. She said we were missed and just wanted to touch base with me. I love them! The Maestro played the entire service on the organ which was a nice touch…..Justin asked if he pulled out all the stops….a little pipe organ humor, there. I also placed a call to a busy household in Winona to speak briefly with my friend, Judy R. and her family. All were busy preparing for the feast but stopped to chat with me. I even got to say Merry CHRISTmas to Jer Bear, Judy’s hubby. The joy, love, and warmth came over the phone, both to them and from them! A mutual friend of Judy’s and mine, Kari Hahm, at First German, sent a telephone hug to Judy and family. Kari is dear friends with one of Judy’s daughters, and if you are friend of the daughter, you are friend of the mom, too! Kari and I share a love for the Ruserts, between Winona, Manitowoc, and Orange Park!!!

Lori, David, and Dusty made it safely from Holmen, arriving at Lisa’s house in Sheboygan just ahead of us. The ride down was perfection, no icy spots or snow covered roadways to hinder travel. We could smell the turkey roasting before we even climbed onto Ellison's front porch! Mmmmm! Lynn made her delicious mashed potatoes and Jill made a salad called, get this, Prange Salad! It’s a pasta salad with a dill seasoning and was simply wonderful. I’ve requested the recipe so I can make it every time I get lonesome for my friends, the Pranges! Of course, it’s probably named after the store but I can think it’s named after my friends instead, because it makes me feel better!

Lisa’s boys were adorable, of course, as they greeted us at the door with light sabers. Each has a colored Star Wars saber which makes a whooshing sound as it’s swung. Great fun for two boys in small quarters! After lunch and dessert we finished opening our presents, as we’d already begun the night before at Jill’s house before the candlelight service. As an early birthday present, Lori and family gave me a fabulous pink and white tie-dyed shirt with a handmade matching bracelet. Besides that, she gave me a lovely silver necklace which says: Live well, laugh often, love much. Couldn’t have said it better myself! She told me I’ll have to take care of it because it’s real silver and will require the loving care of the jewelry cloth she gave me last year…….I just have to remember where I put it!!! Lynn, who had Justin’s name, got him the perfect wireless mouse for his computer. We know it’s perfect, because he described it and sent the link to my computer when she was at my house. She said, “Buy it!” so I did. She liked the idea of it because it would be easy to pack in his luggage for the ride home again. I really don’t think he expected to get it from her, and is happy he did!

Last night, after the festivities, the Schippers went to visit with his mom and some family, before checking into their hotel room. Once there, Justin, Lynn, and I went over there and played a couple rousing games of Apples to Apples. Justin got me a travel version of this same game so I was more than happy to play with them. One round Justin knew I’d pick his card because the one he threw in was titled “Pez dispensers”. “Seinfeld” wins again!!!! The category was “Humorous” so Pez dispensers worked perfectly.

Lynn dropped Justin and me off at Mom’s around 10:00 pm as all were pretty well pooped out, them after a long drive in a.m. plus the long day besides. The weather was already kicking up as we drove home, but regardless, plans were made to have breakfast at Four Seasons at 9:00 a.m. We met without any driving problems, even Mom came along for this outing. The streets were a bit slippery but not wildly so.

After meeting Schippers and Lynn for breakfast, the ladies and Justin went to WalMart to shop, as he had one last present to buy, MINE!!! Our store was out of what he wanted so he waited until he got here to get me “Mamma Mia!” on DVD. He’d not gotten anything for his father either so he did that while out and about today. That side of the family won’t be getting together until Sunday but we’ll need to drop off our presents beforehand. We’d originally planned to get together with some of them tonight but our plans got changed due to the dinner tonight plus a birthday party on Mona’s side of the family. More complications!!!

This evening is the Hahm’s farewell dinner so I got a card in which to write a few lines, plus one for the pastor who is remaining. He needs encouragement, too, now that he’ll be serving this huge congregation by himself. Let me rephrase---he’ll be the sole pastor serving this congregation, with the assistance of the parish boards, teaching staff, and, of course, the Lord! It will prove to be an emotional evening, certainly, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world!