Sorry: Taking some time off.

My poor hubby is sick, I just hosted my whole family for Christmas, and I'm trying to get my house back in order.

See ya next year!

Oh goody, goody! A new gadget!

I just found this site a few days ago. It's really neat! It's called Scribd. You can upload your documents, stories, drawings, photos and then they get processed into several different formats to share or to keep private.

I thought it was really cool. I've created a few resources over the years and I've wanted to share them. So one of the really cool features is that you can embed your documents into your site. So here's a couple of the Advent calenders I created.

Enjoy!

Here's the Santa version:



And the Nativity version:



How stinkin' awesome is that? Right? Fully functional pdf-ers on my blog. Who knew?

Merry Holidays???

OK, warning soapbox moment. And if you have a comment that's great but I'm not open to a debate right now. There are, I'm sure, plenty of places to debate this issue online. This just isn't one of them at this time. Thanks.

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I am a Christian. I hope you've picked up on that by now. If not hopefully it's not a huge shock. But anyways I am and I'm proud of it. That fact is the most important thing to know about me. I believe in Jesus Christ. It is a deciding factor for everything I do. It makes me who I am. It decides what I am doing on December 25th every year. I'm celebrating my holiday.

Traditionally, Christians(Evangelicals) don't have that many "Christian" holidays. I can think of 2. Easter and Christmas. Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birth and Easter is the celebration of his resurrection from the dead. That's it. Our 2 holidays. We get 2 days of the year that are distinctly Christian celebrations.

And this brings me to the problem. We aren't even allowed to proclaim it. We can't "Go Tell it on the Mountains". People aren't allowed to tell us "Merry Christmas" because they might offend someone who doesn't celebrate the birth of our Lord.

I think this whole "Don't say Merry Chrismas" thing is getting out of hand. I in no way think that we "own" the cold weather or the month of December. But we do "own" Christmas. It's named for our Savior. No matter how you celebrate it, everyone knows that it's "Christ"mas.

People know that the star on top of many Christmas trees stands for the star the wisemen followed to find the Baby in the Manger. The Angel on other trees stands for the Angel of the Lord that proclaimed the birth of the Christ child to the shepherds watching their flock. I think most people know or have seen a nativity. That's the point of this holiday. The birthday of Jesus Christ.

I know that there has always been debate over the origin of the traditions, the specific date of His birth, confusion over the tree in the house, guilt over the excessive spending, stress, hustle and bustle and all the rest. But basically, if no one has ever told you the story of Christmas. Here it is:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

(John 3:16)

It was so simple Charlie Brown. God loves you. He sent his son as a baby into this world. God put on skin. He came into "your" world. And why? So that you would believe and accept His gift to you. He loves you.

A baby was born and I don't know of any society that doesn't celebrate that. New life is always a celebration. It's a big deal everywhere. Let Him have his birthday. Allow us the 25th of December or any day for that matter to say Merry Christmas or Happy Birthday Jesus. If you see me on the street or anywhere wish me Merry Christmas. I promise it won't offend me. It would be very much welcome. Cause although the stores and apparently the library have no problem with carrying Christmas books, gifts, toys, decor and what not they have a huge problem with words.

Okay, that was long but I'm glad I got it off my chest. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Also, I thought this
video was pretty funny so I thought I'd share. Enjoy!