Fellowship and Fun

Today, my 2 homeschooled kids (age 16 and 11) and I are joing our close friends, 2 other homeschool moms and their kids ( 2 more 16yo's and a 12 year old) for a little homeschool Christmas party and cookie bake today. As of the time of this writing we have finished the party part and are moving on to the cookie party.

We found out during the Christmas IQ quiz that even those of us who have gone to church all our lives and read the Bible ten times over don't know everything there is to know about the Christmas story. We decided we should have read what Mathhew and Luke have to say about the nativity BEFORE the quiz, not after when we were trying to make sense of the answers.

I also found out this year that both my kids that are at home think that Christmas is all about being with family and enjoying the ones you love. So does my husband! Noble as that is, it's not the reason for the season - just a perk.

So this year, my family and I are celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas starting on the evening of Dec. 25th. There are no hard and fast rules about celebrating the Twelve Days. The twelfth day is supposed to represent the day the Wise Men arrived with gifts for baby Jesus. So we've decided our Twelve Days celebration will emphasis the reason for Jesus birth and the blessed creativity that the Lord gave human beings (this year in the form of that various versions of the Twelve Days of Christmas song). By Jan. 6th, my children and my husband should be able to say what Christmas is about and why; and hopefully, next year, we will have a firmer foundation from which to start.

My prayer today is that the Lord will open my eyes to the details I have failed to take note of in the Scriptures I have read so many times. I pray that their meaning be made clear by the Holy Spirit, and they will be engraved in the Bible of my brain. I pray each of my fellows on this site will make a careful reading of the nativity passages and note at least one new detail this year that has slipped by them in the past, and that this detail will enrich your lives and understanding of God's plan for us. In Jesus' name, I pray.