The Twelve Days of Christmas: First Day
Last week I shared some of the struggles I find during the Christmas season and some of the ways I cope with those things. Enough of that! There are articles abounding out there on ways to cope with Christmas, ways to change your Christmas, etc. So if any of you are looking for more help in that direction, just google something about Christmas and you will be inundated with ideas.
But, for the next twelve days I would like to share some stories I wrote awhile ago and published on my first blog Wendalyn Loves To Write. There are 12 stories and so I am calling this series ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. I hope and pray that you will be entertained and encouraged by these stories. I hope and pray that you will find new ways this year to find joy in this stressful season.
Of course for the first day of Christmas I just had to find a picture of a ‘partridge in a pear tree’.
What Do Discretion and Understanding have to do with Christmas?
“Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” (Proverbs 2:11)
What a comforting thought. A good line to quote to your teenagers when lecturing them. A good thought for any of us, at any age, when ploughing through the mine fields of life.
I am planning to share some thoughts about Christmas here for the next few days leading up to Christmas. I do love watching the Christmas movies, most of which I have seen every year at this time. They are usually pretty because of Christmas decorations and lights. The sound good with familiar Christmas music in the background. They always have a happy ending… what’s not to love about that!
One movie I watched this week was ‘His and Her Christmas’. It was about two journalists with opposing views about Christmas who would use their newspaper columns to voice their strong opinions. It eventually leads to a sparring match, and of course they fall in love and live ‘happily every after’. It inspired me to record some of my own thoughts about Christmas. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Twelve Days of Christmas: Second Day
I am continuing my twelve days of Christmas by sharing stories I published on my personal blog in 2008. Don’t you just love these ‘two turtle doves’?
What Was Your Childhood Like?
When I think of my parents, I can fit them into this proverb about love and faithfulness. “Let love and faithfulness never leave you.; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:3) I know they won favour with man, but I cannot presume to know what kind of favour they had with God.
With me they did, and still do, in my memory of them, find favour. I believe I was blessed with wonderful parents and had a happy childhood. Read the rest of this entry »
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Fourth Day
Does anyone actually know what kind of birds the ‘four calling birds’ were? Actually I just learned today that the original song talked about ‘four colly birds’ which are apparently like a blackbird or a thrush. FYI
Anyways, I am sharing some personal Christmas stories from my old blog for 12 days of Christmas. Here is the fourth story.
Do You Remember Where You Were When You Learned There Was NO SANTA CLAUS?
Finding out that Santa was not real happened to me when I was about eight years old. The only detail I remember was throwing myself down on the chesterfield in our living room, in utter despair and a flood of tears. I remember nothing before or after that. If this was a traumatic event, it lasted only a few minutes, for that is all I remember. But to a child, even a moment is traumatic. Children live in the moment, with little thought of the past or the future. Read the rest of this entry »
The Twelve Days of Christmas: The Third Day
As I continue to share personal Christmas stories from my old blog, I am enjoying finding pictures for the twelve days of Christmas. I managed to find a couple by an artist, but only some of the days, this one for instance. But oh my, it is beautiful art!
What was your “Best Christmas Tree Ever”?
As I ate my breakfast this morning in the dark early hours of the day, I was admiring our Christmas tree and thinking “that is our best tree ever!” and that brought back a memory from my childhood.
Every single year, after the tree was decorated, my mom would stand back and admire her handiwork and say “that is our best tree ever”. I am thankful for a mother who was such a positive person, spoke mostly nice things and kept the ugly thoughts to herself, and who saw the world through rose coloured glasses much of the time. Read the rest of this entry »
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Sixth Day
Oh what fun I am having sharing some Christmas stories with you!
I am also having some fun finding pictures for the different days of ‘the Twelve Days of Christmas’. Don’t you love this picture of the ‘six geese a laying’?
As promised, today I am sharing one of my best Christmases ever.
What Was Your Best Christmas Surprise Ever?
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Fifth Day
It is the fifth day of my twelve days of Christmas stories. I am sharing personal stories from my old blog. I chose this picture from the Canadian olympics for my ‘five gold rings’. I hope you are enjoying them!
What Was Your Most Disappointing Christmas?
My husband and I were still in university at the time. We drove ‘home’ to her house and got there on Christmas eve before she arrived home from work. When I walked in the door I was overwhelmed with the emptiness. There was not a Christmas decoration in sight! When she got home she was all tired and crabby and complaining about Christmas.
She was not one for music either, so the house was silent. Not even a Christmas cookie to be found. We had a wonderful dinner on Christmas day (she was a fabulous cook) but that was about as far as it went. There was no more family, no one dropping in, no fun at all. I felt like crying all day. (This in itself tells you that I had as yet in my young life experienced none of life’s much greater sorrows.)
I realized at that point that to me Christmas was being with family, it had nothing to do with presents at all. How I missed my family that day.
The following year my mom invited my mother-in-law and brother-in-law to join all of us for Christmas. At least I got be with my own family again, but my Christmases were never quite the same after that. But how could it be? Children grow up and move, things change, they must.
But that is how life is supposed to be. We must move through the stages, learning as much as we can from each of them while establishing new ways of doing things that suit for awhile and then making changes again where necessary.
Now, after sharing my most disappointing Christmas with you, tomorrow I will tell you about the best Christmas surprise ever!
I am so glad you dropped by today!
Join me again at ‘Depression Getaway’ and together we will…
…live, care, laugh, share, learn, discover, forgive and recover.
Don’t give up, I’m praying for you!
Wendy Love
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Eight Maids a Milking
As we continue with Christmas stories from my old blog, I am having fun trying to find pictures to match up with ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. Hope you like this one for ‘eight maids a milking’.
What Were Some of Your Most Memorable Christmas Presents?
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Seventh Day
‘Seven swans a swimming’ – only on the internet can you find a picture for everything! I am having fun sharing Christmas stories from my old blog. I hope you are enjoying them too. Couldn’t resist lining up my twelve stories with the twelve days of Christmas!
Last time I shared my best Christmas surprise ever.
This week’s story is not as upbeat….
What Was Your Saddest Christmas Ever?
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Tenth Day
Oh my goodness! Just look at those ‘lords a leaping’!
Only two more stories to go from my Christmas stories in my old blog. One would think by reading my stories that I had these amazing Christmases. And you know, that is the fun part about reminiscing about things years later. The good things are memorable, that not so good things are not. If we keep retelling the good stories, they will get gooder and gooder and stronger in our memories.
Why Would I Get an Empty Paint Can for a Christmas Present?
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Ninth Day
How do you like my ‘nine ladies dancing’? As I continue to share some Christmas stories from my old blog, I am reminded of the good times I have had at Christmas time. It is so easy to get caught up in the stress of gift buying, etc. that it would be so easy to forget the good times. May some of my stories help you remember some of your good times at Christmas!
What Was Your Best Present Camouflage?
When my girls were young, their dad and I would take them to K-mart to shop for Christmas. He would take one daughter, I would take the other and they would buy a present for one another. It was great fun, very secretive and there were lots of giggles. For daughters so close in age, who spent most of their time together, it was hard but fun to keep the secret until Christmas. Read the rest of this entry »
