Christmas Past and Present

Certain things shout out Christmas to me. One of the big ones is Clementine oranges. They were a special treat Mom would buy at Christmastime. We'd find a few of them in the bottom of our stockings. Whenever I peel one of those the scent of Christmas is released. And it triggers memories of Christmas past.

A pot on the stove, filled with water, orange peels, cinnamon, maybe cloves. As it boils a wonderful aroma fills our home. I breath it in. Ah! Christmas. And the picture of my mom's smiling face, as she stands by the stove flashes in my mind.

Cookie cutters. The 12 days of Christmas variety. Colored corn syrup and paintbrushes. The laughter of my brothers and sister as we paint each cookie, run string through it, and hang them on our tree.

Real trees. The running and searching for just the right one. And then inevitably the image of my brothers adjusting a tree in their...uh....hmm... pajamas. (My family will know exactly what that means!)

A lighted tree at night. I hear the soothing melody of Manheim Steamroller's O Holy Night in my head. I picture myself curled on the couch sipping tea and just resting, pondering on the words of that song.

My dad's big black Bible. His voice reading over the Christmas story comes to me, refocusing my heart on the meaning of Christmas. Immanuel, God with us.

My parents gave us so much, so many memories, and fun times. And even now, today, in Christmas present they live on.

But, not every memory is joyous and peaceful. Usually about a week or so before Christmas my heart grows heavy. Something happens that triggers another memory. It could be something totally unrelated, but it happens. And so it should. This year it was the words of my son while in the car, "I miss Daddy." Memories of excitement, driving with my future sister in law to see my sister and my brothers at the beginning of Christmas break. Excitement that turned to utter grief. I will never forget the day my sister-in-law's father died. It burns in my mind: the look on my brother's face when he answered that call, his eyes that spoke volumes to me. If I could give one gift, if I could change anything about the past, it would be for her to have had one last day with her dad. I did not know him well, I only met him a couple of times. But, I knew my sister in law. I loved her. I told my brother he had to marry this girl because she was the closest thing to an angel on earth. I know we aren't as close as we were during college days, but I still feel the same way about her.

Christmas Past is always in Christmas Present. I know there are many who are grieving right now, whether because of a death, or because of abandonment, or because of a loved one who is half the world away. Some I know their names, some I don't. But my prayer is that this Christmas Present you will feel the comfort and peace which comes from the Prince of Peace, the Almighty God, the Everlasting Savior. That sweet memories of Christmas Past will fill your hearts making Christmas Present even sweeter. I pray that each one of us will finally come to a place of stillness and worship as we realize that Immanuel is with us.

I am looking forward to being with my family this Christmas. I hope some of the old memories will be reborn into new memories. Memories my children can share as well. I look forward most of all to hearing my dad's voice, drawing us back to the purpose of Christmas,

“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.... Glory to God in the highest,
      And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!

Sisters and Advent

This is our second year using this Advent Calendar.

This year we've not missed a night, which I can't say about last year. The kids really enjoy reading bits and pieces of the story of Christmas night by night. Each night we take out a little booklet and read it, then the kids take turns hanging them on our tree.

So, this morning I was busy tidying up and I noticed this in my room:

They were "reading" the booklets to each other. Now, I don't think they were saying any intelligible words. But, they sure were having fun and enjoying the pictures.

Singing for Mom

I have been blessed to be part of Side by Side, an arm of CMDA during the 4 1/2 years we have been in Minnesota. It makes me sad that this is my last year with this great group. I've made a lot of great friends and learned a lot through teaching, helping, and just hanging out. The last meeting before Christmas our children come sing for the moms before we break up into our small group Bible studies. This year our three oldest participated. Liam was up and down, in and out, as usual. Kieran sang along just fine. And Eliana, well, she just gave her sweetest smile for everyone.

And just because she is so cute...

So many books....so little time.

One of the things I love (and will miss) about our city is the awesome public library. I love books, good books, and lots of them. We have a decent amount of books at home, but never quite enough for this bookworm. Sometimes Brett thinks we have too many books and, maybe, sometimes he is right. Our children are still young and teaching them to respect books (instead of tearing pages, coloring on pages, spilling drinks on pages...) hasn't materialized as well as we had hoped. But, the upside to that is that our children love, love, love books.

I started teaching Kieran to read about a year or so ago. It was a little frustrating for me at first, being new to this whole teaching thing and totally forgetting that I had to be taught to read (you mean I wasn't born that way?). But, we went at his pace and very quickly he surpassed my goals for him. This child has loved books since he was just a baby. He is so thrilled now to be able to read and nothing is safe anymore! 

(Yeah, Brett and I can't do that spelling thing anymore- you know i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m."Oh are you talking about ice cream, Mom!")

The end result is that I have created a monster!

This is his stack from our trip to the library on Monday. These are for him to read himself, not for me to read to him. I suspect this will last a week, maybe if I am lucky a week and a half. He is holding one book from his favorite series: Nate the Great, stories about a young detective boy and his cases. He informed me when we got home that he was pretty sure after this he will have read all the Nate the Great books our library has. I think he was disappointed. Oh well, the second time around is sometimes better!

 

This is how Sarena enjoys a stack of books!

Welcome to the Dempsey blog!

So, this is our first attempt to chronicle our life, and all the crazy things (and more likely mundane things) that go along with it.

Our prayer is that our lives will be a beautiful fragrance to God as we dwell in the love He has given to us and live out that love to others. We may not always get it right, but God's mercy is everlasting and His grace is sufficient.