Tag Archive for: Christmas spirit

Merry Christmas!

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by Bethany Maines

Some years I’m more into the Christmas spirit than others.  This year I started listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I’ve squeezed in my favorite Christmas movies – White Christmas and Die Hard. I have decorated the mantle with every single Christmas card, including the one from the distant family friends that came with a two page letter (who has the time for that??).  And I have wrapped all the presents and bought all the stuffs. Christmas is happening at my place. 

But not all years are filled with the Yuletide joy.  And I do remember a few seasons in which I wanted to stab the eye out of the next bell ringer and I deeply resonated with Hans Gruber.  Well, I mean to be honest, I still resonate with Hans Gruber.  Who doesn’t want 600 million in bearer bonds and who wouldn’t get mad about some stupid NYC cop ruining a perfectly good heist?  I mean, really.

But whether you’re feeling like curling up away from everyone with a good book (ahem, here’s a few you might like – Bethany Maines on Amazon) or you’re going to be rocking it with family and friends – I wish you a Merry Christmas and a restful vacation.  And as Hans once said, “It’s Christmas, Theo — it’s the time of miracles.” So maybe this year we’ll all get our Christmas wishes (and 600 million in bearer bonds).

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Church Christmas Dinner Big Success

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Despite the nightmares I had about oversleeping and not getting my turkey into the oven on time, I managed to bake my 17 lb. turkey, make two big trays of dressing, two with the “green bean casserole”, and one tray of yams with marshmallows ontop.

Hubby carved the turkey and we hauled the food over to church. The room was all set up with red tablecloths, candy in little dishes on each table, and poinsettia plants here and there. One table held a coffee pot, another container of punch and one with hot cider. Another table had all sorts of homemade deserts, pie, cakes, cookies and even fudge.

The serving table was loaded with ham, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, yams, green salad, rolls, and sweet bread. Some of us stood behind the table and served up what people wanted. Others brought more food out from the kitchen, while others quickly prepared or brought out more of whatever dish we ran out of.

The paper had a notice in the Christmas morning addition and there was big sign inviting anyone who needed a place to go for Christmas dinner out on the highway. The dinner was to start at 1, but we began serving people at noon.

Many of the people we fed were the workers–and lots of members of my family since I usually have Christmas dinner at my house. However, we had many people come we’ve never seen before. And it was obvious they really appreciated (and needed) the Christmas dinner. We delivered 8 meals to people who called asking for them, and one family was picked up and brought to the church and taken home afterward.

It was a lot of work–but it was also a joy. What a great way to spend Christmas day! My daughter-in-law, son and grandson helped serve the food and enjoyed themselves. My granddaughter put people’s names on name tags.

I hope we do it again. I’m really proud of our tiny church, it is definitely a church with a big heart and I think we truly showed our Christmas spirit.

(I’m a terrible photographer–frankly I took these photos and then totally forgot to take any more. Of course most of the time I was behind the serving table, dishing up food for people.)

Marilyn