Dreaming of a White Christmas Take 2

Well my post disappeared into not so smartphone space. Here are a couple of backyard pictures.

Oops!

My post that is either slow in posting because I posted from my phone. The title says I'm Steaming of a White Christmas. It should have said I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. Hope it shows up.

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish my readers a very Merry Christmas! This is our nativity scene my aunt-in-law gave us many years ago when my girls were little.

Mini Gingerbread Houses

I bought a gingerbread house cutter to make mini gingerbread houses. We had never made them before. We didn't have much to decorate them but we had fun anyway.

Christmas Music

I love Christmas and I love Christmas music. I love Christ-centered ones the best. Some of my favorite songs are O Come, O Come Immanuel, Silent Night, O Holy Night, Do You Hear What I Hear(sung by Whitney Houston or Bing Crosby) and Joy to the World.
I have a few secular ones that I enjoy like Silver Bells, White Christmas and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
I will miss hearing the Christmas carolers coming to our door like they did at our old house in CA. I don't know if we will get them here being out in the country and all.  Maybe I could get a group of people together and go Christmas caroling ourselves.

Christmas TV Ads

I admit I'm a sucker for mushy make me cry Christmas TV ads. Some of my favorites are really old like the one from McDonald's where all the kids are ice skating with Ronald McDonald. But there's a little boy who can't skate as well as his friends so he has this sad look on his face. That is until Ronald scoops him up and spins around with him. There's one from Apple iphone from Christmas 2013 called Harris Holiday or something like that. This one there's a teenage boy who appears to be into his phone and not really participating with the family but in reality he is making a special Christmas video. I became a blubbering idiot when I saw it for the first time. Don't get me started on the Hallmark ads that only air during Hall of Fame presentations. 😭😭😭

We don't have cable so we don't get to watch many of the Christmas movies but we do have a small collection of DVDs like It's a Wonderful Life, Meet Me in St. Louis, A Charlie Brown Christmas to name a few. I'll have to watch YouTube for the Hershey Kisses commercial. That's my favorite!

One Year Ago,Christmas and Loss

Our lives changed forever when my father-in-law passed into glory. He suffered greatly from COPD,dementia and a cracked hip. We had no idea then that we would be selling our house and moving to Arizona.
That first Christmas without Dad was painful but I'm sure it was worse for my dh Tim. He made sure Christmas for us was as normal as we could possibly be though. I think experiencing grief during the holidays is excruciating. I like to pray for those involved in Hollywood and this year many passed away so I know their families are feeling the loss of their loved ones during this time of year.
There were, that because we were going through our own grief, I didn't even know were gone. People like Patty Duke, Delores Roberts, and Prince. I want to remember their families in prayer.

So here it is Christmas time in our new home. It's a little weird because at our old house in CA we decorated with some of the same decorations and each decoration had it's special place in the home.
When Tim brought in the Christmas boxes we started going through them but we weren't sure where to put things because it just wasn't the same.
I watched a YouTube video recently of a old Hallmark commercial that aired during the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. The commercial was about a little boy and his family spending their first Christmas in their new home. He was all concerned about where things were going to go. Anyway, his mom shows him some of the ornaments they had collected that held special meanings. The commercial ends with the little boy saying "I'm glad we brought Christmas with us."
So we brought Christmas with us. We have put our decorations in new places. We have a beautiful nativity wall hanging that used to hang by our front door in the entry so that it would be the first thing people saw when they came in.
This year it is hanging over the wall flat screen TV rack that came with the house. We have a fireplace so now our stockings can hang on the mantel.  At our old house they hung on a wall in the entry outside the nativity wall hanging.

Even though things will never be the same, I'm so grateful that the Lord has brought us to this house. I'm am grateful we get to celebrate our Savior's birth here. Blessed be the name of the Lord!