Christmas serving

We were off to worship by 8. I tried something this morning I had never tried before. We sang Christmas Carols and had two short messages. As the last part of the worship, we all wrote a favorite memory of Christmas past on a paper and laid them at the foot of the Creche I had brought. I then gathered them and read them as gifts from Jesus from the past. Some of them were quite moving, a couple even sad. We went about 20 minutes longer than usual, but most people were caught up in the moment. I received a few comments about how much the service was appreciated. We left there and came home for a coat for Evelyn (the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees from the time we entered worship) before going to Immanuel to sing with the choir. We will do that again on Christmas Eve. We came home to share a lunch from Church’s Chicken before relaxing. Our friends from Winnipeg dropped in with a gift as I was working on sending e-mail Christmas greetings. We rested a bit and went to Immanuel again to join our friends in caroling 8 shut ins from the church. We had to drive about 40 miles to get to all of them. Afterward we went to Winston’s lake house for a party. We all brought something but Bonny provided 10 dozen tamales and some beans she had made. We had a good time and talked with many people. There were 2 men from the North who were in the Valley working with Laborers for Christ in helping a pastor repair his home, damaged during the hurricane. They were interesting and enjoyed singing with us. We came home and talked with Emily and her family for a while and then went to bed.