Just A Candle in the Window

My Aunt Paula sent me this awesome Northern Woodland Nativity set, and even though I don't think Baby Jesus had woodland pinecones for his manger, it certainly brings back sights and smells of Christmas for me... I love it... thank you AP!

I don't think I ever said to myself, "Hey, Steph, you're moving to Mexico and you should probably take along your woolen coat, scarves, mittens, heavy socks, and heating blanket." But I have needed them all in the past few weeks... multiple times... crazy, huh?

Above, Eli... wearing one of her winter getups during church on Sunday.

The other night we had movie-watching (The Polar Express), popcorn-chewing (more ended up on the floor than anywhere else and Zion - the dog - had to clean up), and hot-chocolate-drinking time at the Schick's house... it was wonderful, and as we all snuggled on the couch (above, Yanelli and I about half way through the film) I drifted back to my precious Christmas memories....

Dad, Mom, Tif, Chel and I sitting around the living room with no lights on, watching the "first fire" (woodstove) of the season, drinking Mom's homemade hot chocolate that has been ladled out of the green soup bowl on the stove... lying on my stomach in front of the stereo listening to the Christmas music of Alabama, Glen Campbell, The Lettermen, and Montovani's Orchestra float through the room... getting annoyed with the tinny music from the blinking Christmas lights (that blinked in rhythm with the music, I might add) on the windows and tree... waking up in my room upstairs and seeing my breath white in the predawn light spilling through the northern windows... watching the little kids at church perform their Christmas program, and then rushing to the fellowship hall for exchanges, games, cider, and caramel-coated popcorn... caroling to all the dear faces of our Kiowa congregation, fingertips and nose turning bright red as you ride through the crisp air on a trailer with hay bales, holding squirming kidlets on your lap... singing "The Night that Love was Born in a Manger," and "Stille Nacht" fifty million times (I know you love them Mom...! =P)... reading the Christmas story from St. Luke with the whole family gathered in Grandma Mildred's front room, and then the "Christmas story" afterward from Guideposts that always, always, always makes Mom, Grandma M., and I cry... watching It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas with my college buddies every year as we drink coffee and snack on leftovers from the "open houses" at Bethany... walking through the fields at Grandma and Grandpa Rudy's house for our "Christmas walk"... and of course stepping out into the crisp, winter air of a still, Kansas night while you breathe in snowflake particles, Christmas hymns drift through your mind, and you look into the vast blue-black blanket of sky crocheted with stars, and think... "We are so blessed... thank you, Lord."

Yes, I will miss being home this Christmas... but I would miss being here, too. And I think... no, I know... that letting these kids experience Christmas with all the love we have in our hearts and that we've tucked away from our years at home is incredibly important. So as the holiday keeps getting closer, I am rejoicing... rejoicing that we can be here to love, to sing, and to praise the birth of Your son, Father... and to let these kids rejoice as well!

"A Candle in the Window" - performed by Alabama.

There’s a road that I remember leading to a special place
Where the door was always open to a smiling face
There’s a picture on the mantle of a boy that looks like me
It’s always the same, there’s a stocking with my name

And a candle in the window, a flame against the night
There’s a candle in the window, it’s like God’s perfect light
It don’t take a lot of money to know what riches are
Just a candle in the window

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking
I can hear the sleigh bells ring
Almost taste the pie mama’s baking,
it’s Christmas Eve

Wherever the years may take me, no matter how far I go
There’s going to be a candle burning, it’s always nice to know
It don’t take a lot of money to know what riches are
Just a candle in the window and Christmas in your heart