Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we pray you have a blessed holiday.

As we celebrate this special time of the year in which we choose to honor our Savior's birth, we have in our prayers those who are mourning and have sick family members.

May the Lord bless you all!

Saint Nicholas Eve...

I woke with a start as I looked at the clock, the calendar on the wall with the date circled in red... Tomorrow is Saint Nicholas day!

What does that mean for this family?

Long story short? Because of the outside influences on our family and the heavy commercialism in society, we do not have Santa Claus involved in our Christmas traditions. However, in order to keep the younger kids from feeling like they are missing out on their childhood we looked into the truth behind the jolly old elf. And thus became the acknowledgement of Saint Nicholas Day.

St. Nicholas was a young man that had been orphaned and raised by monks. (long story short) He had quite a bit of money, but the custom of being a monk was to forgo all worldly possessions. In doing so, Nicholas gave his money to the poor that needed in, but he did it secretly. He did not want attention for his actions. (This is how the Secret Santa tradition got its start.)

For our family what we do is on Saint Nicholas day, December 6, we have a devotion about giving or servitude and talk about who Nicholas was and most importantly why he did what he did. The reason St. Nicholas lived the way he did was because he was a Christian and he followed Jesus.

All of that said. I know a large group of people in the Google+ Community that have grasped the true Christmas spirit and they are trying to bring Christmas about for a lot of people that could use some help. +Secret Santa is doing a great job. They have over 1000 wish lists and everybody is participating by those that can afford to buy, doing so and those that can not by helping some other way. 

We do have our wishlist listed.  You can find it here : http://amzn.com/w/2458W1BJ2234L 

Or, if you would like to send Christmas Cards (We love Christmas Cards and if you give us your address we will send one to you too)

The Johnson Famiy

P.O. Box 241

White Bluff, TN 37187 

Christmas Eve

The boys were excited to be able to open their pajama presents tonight as it is time for bed.

They all eagerly await the blessings that God has provided them tomorrow. G1 and G3 will get home for brunch and then we will have a devotion on the birth of Jesus as we do every year.

This year we are going to have the french toast casserole for brunch. For supper Nana, Papa and Uncle Marc are coming over. And anybody else that wants.

Merry Christmas!

G1 & G3's Christmas Song

G1 & G3 had a little short Christmas performance last night at our local library. Their band director was the special guest and he invited several of the bands students to play. It was quaint. For the students there was the experience of playing for an audience outside of school. For the audience, we were able to see up and coming talent. This is G1's 6th year on the clarinet and G3's 3rd year on the tenor sax, she also played the alto sax for 2 years. Hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Sitting down after a busy weekend of holiday preparations. Decorating the house because we did not get it done Thanksgiving weekend. Doing the needed shopping. And the list goes on.

This past Thursday we were able to enjoy B1 and the rest of 4th and 5th grade give a holiday choir concert. It was cute and he sang his heart out. I was not in a good place for pictures considering the school could use a bit of an expansion.

This week the high school band (G1 & G3) perform Tuesday, the choir (G1) performs Thursday and the band marches in the Christmas parade on Saturday. It is good to be busy though, makes us appreciate the quiet times more.

The kids are also excited because we do a special devotion on St. Nicholas eve. We do this so that they understand where the myth of the man in the red suit comes from. For our family this works best. B3 with his thought process and G2 and B1 having problems separating fact and fiction prevents the 'typical' santa approach. We want the kids to understand that God is our provider and Jesus was and is God's gift to us. Our Christmas presents are brought by Jesus.

What do you do for Christmas and the holiday season?