The Essence of Christmas

Merry 2nd Day of Christmas!  ¡Feliz 2o Día de Navidad!  I had a busy week, with a Quinceañera, a Baptism, 2 Christmas Eve Eucharists, and more.  I was exhausted by Christmas Day, but feel blessed to serve 2 marvelous congregations.  This weekend I'm enjoying some time with my family around Texas.

Santa Mickey Mouse Christmas Gifttags
Colorful Options - December 2025 (All Things Gingerbread Photo Color Scheme)
Random-osity - Merry Christmas
What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 864/84

For my first project, I have a set of 2 Christmas gift tags I made for my grandson's gifts.  (They're hanging on their Christmas tree now.)  I used the Spellbinders Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse, the Christmas Embellishments, the Borders, and the Alphabet etched dies sets; black foam; various color and prints of cardstock; Kraft tags; and various kinds of adhesives.  These were fun, fast and easy to make, for which I'm glad, as I hadn't had time to wrap presents until Monday.

Elby Cartoon
Friday Face Off - End of Year

For my next piece, I have a cartoon character I created based on my oldest grandson.  I used a black marker and colored pencils in a Strathmore Mixed Media vellum finish journal.  It was fun working on it, and I'm thinking I'll start a series using him as one of the characters.  I want to develop a character based on my youngest grandson too.

Noche Buenas - Poinsettias
TADD - Gratitude

For my last piece, I want to share a photograph I took of my wife's Poinsettia (Noche Buena in Spanish).  She got the plant during Christmas of 2024, pruned it after the holidays, and then nurtured it all year long.  I love how big it got and all the blooms on it.  She loves gardening, and has been learning a lot about it in the past couple of years.  She even has a vegetable garden in some raised beds I made for her.  This year we've been blessed with fresh arugula, squash, tomatoes, okra, and tomatoes.

I am taking Sunday off, so I don't have a sermon to write.  But I will leave you with an excerpt from my sermon from Christmas Eve:

I believe the core reason why we come together on Christmas Eve, is for the essence.  We want to know that despite our personal changing stories, despite what has happened over the past year, despite the problems that face our world, Christmas is still a constant, the truth, and can still happen in our lives, communities, nation and around the world.  We want to find hope in knowing that God’s light still shines in the darkness, that the truth of the good news is still being proclaimed by some people, and that God is still with us.

This will be my last post for 2025, so Happy New Year!  ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!