Angels Everywhere!

 Hello to all my friends!  Christmas is coming really fast now! Mommie says it will be here in five days! I am so excited because this is my very first Christmas, and everything is bright and new and so beautiful! Little by little I've been learning all about what Christmas really means.  Mommie says we are on a Christmas ADVENTure...Advent is the time of preparing our hearts to receive the Christ child anew each year.  

I told Mommie that I was seeing a lot of pretty angels on our Christmas tree and in other places around the house. I asked her why we have so many angels at Christmas time?

Here's a few of them...

Mommie said:  Angels spoke to Mary, to Joseph,  and to the Shepherds.  Angels are still working in the presence of God and in our midst, protecting, guiding God's people along the way."  

Here's the story from God's Word, The Bible:

"Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.  The virgin's name was Mary."

"And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"

"But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.  Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."  Luke 1: 26-33

And to Joseph an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream and said to him,

"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."  Matthew 1:20-21

And then the Angel spoke to the Shepherds, who were out in the fields, "keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, and angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  .

And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

   "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will to men." Luke 2: 8-14

Here's some more of those special Christmas carols that we sing to tell how the angels announced Jesus' birth:

I said to Mommie, "Now I understand why there are so many angels everywhere! They had a very important job to do in announcing Jesus' birth!"

Mommie said yes they did.  She also said:

"I believe that Angels are still at work in our midst....oftentimes being sent on special missions on our behalf directly from the Throne of God...
We will someday be surprised to meet the angelic ambassadors who may have rescued us from many a fall and who stood in the path of danger for us so that we would be safely  protected from the onslaughts of the enemies of God's precious children.
We may be surprised to meet them as they come to carry us heavenward someday....and realize that perhaps we had been entertaining angels unwittingly....

I said, "Wow,  Mommie! I hope I can meet an angel some day! Do you think I ever will?"

She said that I just might be surprised!

We just never know who might be knocking on our door!

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels."  Hebrews 13:2

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little story about the angels...and maybe we should be really nice to strangers, because they just might be an angel.  But Mommie said we should still be very careful and that little children should not talk to strangers without Mommie or Daddy being there too. She said it's always best to let our parents decide who we should talk to, just to be on the safe side.  That makes good sense to me, how about you?  

Well, it is almost bedtime, so I'd better go for now. I sure am enjoying learning about Jesus' birthday, aren't you? Good night every one.  I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Love,

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxxo

Christmas Bells are Ringing, Ringing!

Hello all my dear friends in Bloggyland!  I know it's been a few days, but we've been so busy here lately. I never knew getting ready for Christmas could be such a busy time! Well, mostly for Mommie, but if she's busy, then I don't get to write very often.  Mommie says she is sorry, and this will probably be a longer post since we're making up for lost time!

First of all, I want to show you my very beautiful new Christmas dress!  

It arrived in a very exciting package in the mail last week, addressed to ME, and it said to "Open Now!"

Inside was the beautiful dress, and boots and stockings and all kinds of fun stuff!

And this beautiful picture of my "identical cousin Tracie", wearing the same dress!  Her Mommie, my "Auntie Debbi", got this pretty dress for Tracie, and Tracie wanted me to have one too, and so they sent me one just like it!  I was SO excited I had to put it on right away!! My Mommie said that Tracie and her Mommie are so very very thoughtful and kind.  This made us both so very happy.  Mommie said that sometimes people just love to give gifts and they do it because they love Jesus and they love people, and we can't always repay everyone who gives us gifts, but we can always say "thank you" and perhaps we can do some special kindness for someone else and pass it along.

Mommie shared this special song/poem with me that we sometimes hear or sing at Christmas:

Christmas is all about Jesus' Birthday, and that's why people love to give gifts to one another, to celebrate His birth.  But the most important gift of all is for us to give our hearts to Jesus, and to live for Him...and share that gift with everyone we meet. 

I know I love Jesus, and I want to give Him my heart too.

How about you?

Lately I've  noticed a lot of churches around here in our Christmas decorations.

Mommie even has one on her teacup that she's been drinking her morning tea out of each day:

There's little churches that light up:

And some bigger churches that are like birdhouses...(Mommie said this one really isn't a Christmas decoration, but it stays out all year long because it is so pretty:

Here's another little one over by the skating pond:

And this one is hanging on the tree!

So is this pretty gold one! Mommie said this ornament came from a church where she used to work:

And then of course there's our pretty little church in our "Little Village of Bethlehem" 

One thing I noticed is that all the churches have something called a "steeple". I asked Mommie what's a steeple? And she said it is the place where they hang the bell! Oh! A bell? "Yes, " Mommie said, "and they ring the bells when it is time for church to start or when there is something special happening that they want the people to know about!"

Some church bells even play songs, like Christmas carols, and people can hear them all over town. 

That must be very wonderful to hear! Have you ever lived in a town where the church bells played real songs?  Mommie said that she has, and it was so lovely. One place where she lived they played hymns every day at noontime. It was really beautiful to hear.

Mommie said that especially the churches would ring the bells on Christmas day, to celebrate the Birthday of Jesus!

She showed me some other special little bells on our Christmas tree:

This little Caroler is actually a bell, and Mommie said that her Grandma gave this to her when she was a little girl:

And this special little  angel ornament is ringing bells. Mommie said this one reminds her of my big brother Matthew, who is in heaven now, and maybe he is helping to ring the bells of heaven on Christmas day!

These next three little bells belonged to each of my big brothers when they were little:

Mommie said when my big brothers were little they used to say a little poem when they would hang the bells on the Christmas tree...it went something like this:

"Christmas bells are ringing, ringing.

Christmas bells are ringing, ringing.

Happy Birthday, Jesus dear!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Then they would hang a star in the tree and say:

Christmas stars are shining, shining.

Christmas stars are shining, shining.

Happy Birthday, Jesus, dear!

Happy Happy Birthday!

And here's another beautiful angel ringing some bells:

And then they'd say:

Christmas angels singing, singing.

Christmas angels singing, singing,

Happy Birthday, Jesus, dear!

Happy, Happy Birthday!

And then they'd sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!  I thought that was really really special!

Did you do anything special like that with your family when you decorated the Christmas tree?

Mommie said it is nice to have special traditions and memories...

Well, I guess that's all for today. Oh, one more picture I think you'll love:

This is me with my big sissie, "Baby Elva".  We are both in our pretty Christmas dresses, and guess what! We BOTH have red and white striped stockings!!!  Isn't that special???

We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas!!

Now, let's go ring some Christmas bells!!

Happy Birthday Jesus, Dear, 

Happy Happy Birthday!!