Christmas wishes

 "Kersti Sledging"

We received a lovely Christmas card from some old friends with this painting by the famous Swedish painter, Carl Laarson. Although this reproduction doesn't do it justice, the child's face is adorable.

Today I wish our family was traveling by goat sled instead of Toyota Forerunner.  At this early hour, both Snoqualmie and Stevens Passes are closed, at least until daybreak when they assess the situation. There's been over 3 feet of snow in the Cascades in the past 24 hours.  It will be a long day in the car for two little excited girls.  And their parents.

“I think it is often the case that Christmas comes upon us a bit too quickly.
And we are brought face-to-face with our own humanity—
our limitations, our desires, our vulnerability, and our smallness,
our inability to fulfill our own hopes.”

Christmas Eve is always a busy day for me. I'm making an eggnog cake (new recipe) and fruit salad, muffins, lemonade, that sort of thing for tomorrow. The kitchen work is a pleasant distraction.  We might even get a few snow flurries in the lowlands.

It feels like Christmas came so fast this year, or maybe it's just the sensation that life is speeding up as we age.

Even though we try to prepare, the reality is, we are never really ready for Christmas. And that is the message of the Nativity.  Sad humanity had no room at The Inn.

“God is always being birthed into our lives. In the deepest, darkest,
shut-out corners of our worlds—in our stable places—
God is determined to be born again and again.”

Gertrude Nelson

Merry Christmas to all our dear family and friends.