Happy New Year!

Come and Gone
Hello everyone!  I hope that you all had a great and relaxing holiday!

The holidays are over for another year.  I can't believe how fast it seemed to go by!  The decorations are put away, the tree has been taken down and is now awaiting its final trip to the tree recycling drop-off center, and I'm pining (no pun intended) for next Christmas already.  Is that wrong?  I look forward to Christmas all year long, and now I think I've crashed and am now a little bit blue.  January always seems so dull, since the only holiday is New Year's Day, which is at the very beginning of the month.  There's nothing to look forward to now until Valentine's Day!  I was given the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas off though, and I was very grateful for the extra days I was given off for the Christmas holiday.  (I didn't ask for them off!)  It made the trip to see my family in Michigan seem much less rushed.  We were even able to meet with some friends, who were also up in the same area, before we left.  It was nice, because we haven't seen them in quite a while.  How funny that we have to meet up in a state in which none of us live!  We do still have to have Christmas with my in-laws yet.  That will likely be coming up in the next few weekends.  Regardless, I am looking forward to a quiet rest of the winter, in which time perhaps I will be able to accomplish a few projects of my own, finally!

Auld Lang Syne/New Year's Resolutions?

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve here.  Hubby and I stayed at home and did absolutely nothing all day on Saturday, and it was great!  I do believe that I put my pajamas back on after I took a shower; I was that motivated.  It was nice!  We made a few foods that we don't normally make, to celebrate, and we watched the ball drop with Dick Clark.  Some far-away people shot off fireworks, so we enjoyed the brief display before heading to bed for the night.  All around, a well-needed weekend without something to do, and I feel much refreshed now.  We should have a quiet (and hopefully uneventful) beginning of a new year ahead of us.  So, how many people have made resolutions?  I don't do New Year's resolutions, generally.  I'm sure that there have been times when I have made them; however, they must not have been seen through, otherwise I think I would have remembered!  It's too easy for me to make promises to myself at the beginning of a new year, and even easier to forget them altogether by February 1.  For this reason, I restrain from making resolutions.  I hope that those who do vow to change something this year have great success, though.  Have a wonderful 2011!

For a great version of "Auld Lang Syne" by Barenaked Ladies, click below...special thanks to my sis for playing this album for me last Christmas!

Download this mp3 from Beemp3.com

The current topic of many conversations is the new year, and all that will be new in the coming months. Did you know that it is also a common topic in the Bible?  In the Book of Revelation, God has promised to make all things new (Rev. 21:5, KJV).  He has also promised to make a new Heaven and a new Earth in the coming end times: " Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind" (Isa.65:17).  I am looking forward to this new Kingdom!  It will be like nothing we have ever seen before.  Most importantly, though, we will be able to spend eternity in the very presence of the One who created us.  However, without Christ's forgiveness and intercession, that will not be the case for those who don't know Him.  With this start of the new year, if you don't know Jesus Christ, I urge you to consider starting a relationship with Him.  The Bible promises that this world will not last forever, and we certainly know that life is finite, so I encourage you to ask Jesus into your life and heart and make you new!  You will never regret it!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Holiday Baking

I've begun my holiday baking again for this year.  (Look out, Mom, I'm bringing some with me!)  So far, I've made chocolate no-bakes, chocolate fudge, 7 layer bars (hubby loved these--I'll post the recipe soon), and a tweaked chocolate cookie to which I added peppermint extract and subbed M&Ms for the prescribed chocolate chips.  Not a bad experiment!  I still plan to make chocolate-covered pretzels and peanut blossoms, then give them all away.  I remember when I was young, my mother would spend days baking all sorts of delicious Christmas cookies, because she and the other neighborhood women would all exchange cookies.  No one seems to do that anymore.  Everyone is diet-crazed and acts like Christmas cookies are a disease on a plate.  It makes me sad, because it was such a neat tradition, and an excuse to get together and visit with others around the holidays.  Wow, seems like those days are looong gone.  I think I'm getting more nostalgic as time goes by.  Does this mean I'm an old woman already in an early 30s body??

Beautiful Snow

It seems as though winter has finally arrived here in Ohio.  As I type, snow is falling softly and silently outside of our office window.  It's beautiful, and so peaceful.  We have had small amounts and dustings of snow all week.  I feel like I live inside of a snow globe!  There is something about the purity and silence of the snow that is so attractive.  A snow-covered farm landscape or cozy home seems like the perfect setting to me...the snow covers the dead brown grass and bare trees with a striking contrast of dark and light and seems to make everything clean.  How I long to live in the middle of the woods, in the middle of winter!  There would be nothing more peaceful and perfect as being curled up in front of a blazing fireplace with a quilt and my husband and watching the snow fall outside.  To me, that would be heaven!

Christmastime 

Can you believe that Christmas is two weeks from Saturday??  Where has the time gone?  I love this season, but it seems to go by so fast anymore.  We are done with our shopping for this year, except for one more gift to purchase.  It's nice to have that done, because now I can sit back and relax.  I am not one for crowds anyway, so I try to get Christmas shopping out of the way early so that I'm not fighting crowds at the stores.  This year I finished later than usual.  I did a decent amount of shopping online too, which is something I don't do very often.  I just found some really good ideas/prices online this year.  Now we are free to enjoy the holidays, which includes a few Christmas parties coming up.  Should be a fun time, especially with the snow that is being forecast for this weekend!

This time of year is the best time, in my opinion.  However, it's easy to lose sight of the real reason that we celebrate this time of year.  When we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we celebrate the real gift that God gave the world, and the ability to spend eternity with Him if we choose to do so.  So when the snow falls, and the presents are opened, I hope that everyone remembers the Gift that was given to wash away all of our sins and make us pure and worthy of a relationship with God: "...though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)  Praise the Lord for the incredible gift He has given!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season, and that you carry it in your heart all year long!