December 2023 Newsletter for the IN SEASON Lifestyle Community
Gail Landgraf posted: " Photo by Simon Berger on Pexels.com I hope your December of 2023 was beautiful and meaningful in every way. We certainly enjoyed the glory of some fine seasonal December blessings here. One of those blessings was the very festive decorating " The IN SEASON Lifestyle
I hope your December of 2023 was beautiful and meaningful in every way. We certainly enjoyed the glory of some fine seasonal December blessings here.
One of those blessings was the very festive decorating of our home. If you make your surroundings festive and cheerful and orderly; you will always feel more upbeat and cheerful. It is a great way to share your time and talents with your family. Even the smallest thing can cheer a person and change their mood completely.
I'm all for happy homes. You all know how I love seasonal decorating; and I did not have time to write a House Doctor article about this year's festivities. So I guess I will share a few photos of how it all came together in our December Newsletter. I hope you had as much fun decorating your home as we did. Christmas time is such a beautiful and delightful season.
We chose to use a more traditional red and green decor this year. The focus toward more red bounced off of the fact that we used these pretty new dishes I ordered as a present to myself. I've been wanting these plates for years but simply put off purchasing them. For 2023 I decided this was the year to bring my imagination of them to fruition. Don't you love the table?
Cardinals and horses; my two favorites of the animal kingdom. How could you ever go wrong with them? Notice the cardinals on every window wreath and we put a tree full of cardinals in our bedroom this year. God surely blessed us when He created these creatures. I love using paintings and seasonal reminders of them in our Christmas decorations.
(I do apoligize if this December Newsletter begins more like another of The House Doctor articles; but I wanted to share the cozy results with our readers this year. They seemed extra special this time.)
Our Christmas Eve Brunch gathering with Mom and the Christmas Eve Dinner that evening with our grown children and the one grandchild that lives in-state was so much fun. I would love to share about a million more photos instead of words here; but we do need to get on with the rest of this newsletter. This was just a small, but big favorite part of our December adventures.
Here is the recap of all of the December 2023 articles we published through The IN SEASON Lifestyle blog. They are broken down by topic to make your review easier:
You would think that January would be quite boring after all of this magnificant Christmas season full of activities. Not at all!
We are not done with Christmas either!
Christmas is a SEASON not a day. The season lasts for 12 days; no matter how you have chosen to celebrate them. So we will keep moving through the Christmas season until January 5th. I will not touch one decoration or put anything away until then. The wonder of it all will not be over for a few more days. We will keep pondering the miracle that God came to live among us and was conceived in December. There is never enough "wonder" so we will definitely enjoy the time.
Of course the secular New Year will occur. Our calendars will turn to the first month of the secular year. As civilians of America we will note this and be prepared for new secular things to happen. It isn't a cherished time for us as it will be when we celebrate the sacred new year in Nisan, or remember how the ancients celebrated the sacred new year BEFORE the exodus in the fall during the month of Tishrie. This calendar day is just another secular day for us; and the big event will be to watch a football game and eat some greens. We will probably share our civil New Year's menu and recipes with our readers. It is NOT a sacred tradition, but it is a civil tradition and we will be harmlessly traditional too.
Most people have packed up everything "Christmas" by the time of the civil new year of today's current calendar. Don't be so sure that EVERYONE did though.
As soon as you think we are moving away from the things surrounding Christ's birth (which I believe happened in the fall); we begin to run into the season of Epiphany.
Having celebrated the Christmas Season here by remembering the miracle of the Conception of Christ and the amazing fact of Immanuel - God with us - we come to the time to consider what happened with the wise men after Jesus was born.
There were more than three wise men you know; there was probably a whole caravan which traveled with these men who were great students of the sky.
They knew the signs of the times and that God was sending a new King to Israel because of the great star they had spied and were now following. It DID lead them straight to Jesus. However; this might not have happened on the date we call Christmas Eve (if you celebrate the Conception of Christ as we do it could NOT have happened then.) Many believe the wisemen could have taken up to three years to find the Christ Child, and he would have been living in a home by that time.
With all this uncertainty about dates and times and exact facts for the wise men; most Christians have just agreed on a common day to commemorate them and their wisdom in bringing gifts to the King of Kings and protecting him from the hateful harm of Herod by departing another way to return to their country.
I have the traditional figures of wisemen in my dining room. We will move them closer to the figure of the child we have placed all the way across the room at Epiphany. This is how the grandchildren love to learn about the Magi. We will tell the stories surrounding their coming (with as many exact facts as we can verify) and ponder their wisdom. Along with them, we too will worship Jesus as King of Kings.
Of course, there will be a few articles about Epiphany in January.
As soon as we finish remembering the ancient wise men; we will remember and honor a more-modern wise man who was named Martin Luther King, Jr. We will think of him and his amazing dream and note what the world is doing today to fulfil the wish of that dream. Expect some articles honoring Dr. King in January.
So the boring month of January may not be boring at all. Be sure to stay with us. There is a lot more than the things we mentioned above going on behind the scenes.
Look for many January surprises to appear in 2024.
Best wishes for a blessed year to come;
Gail Landgraf/Publisher/Wirter/Blogger/The IN SEASON Lifestyle Blog
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