He is Risen! He is no longer there!
(Credit to the photo goes to hoyasmeg on Flickr)
He’s Alive!
By Don Fransisco
“He’s alive yes He’s alive
Yes He’s alive and I’m forgiven
Heaven’s gates are open wide
He’s alive yes He’s alive
Oh He’s alive and I’m forgiven
Heaven’s gates are open wide!”
(You can download a free mp3 of this song from Don’s website.)
Happy Easter!
Isaiah 53:3-6
“He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face,
He was despised and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
and our sorrows He carried;
yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities,
The chastening for our well-being fell upon him.
And by His scourging we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
Please indulge me in just one more Christmas idea!
I know the holidays are over, the kids are back in school and the tree is packed up and put away, but this was such a neat idea! Just tuck it away for next year!
My sister-in-law came up with a great activity to make our family Christmas celebration special this year.
She brought a package of brand new Polymer Clay
Together they listed the people and animals needed for the Christmas story and all of the cousins (and even some of the adults!) started creating. (I was in charge of the heavenly hosts!)
It was a fun and sometime silly time as several ages worked together to make the Nativity come to life in clay.
When we had finished, Grandma baked them while the kids played.
Later that evening while the men took turns reading the Christmas story, the children used the pieces they had made to act it out.
It was a fun way to make Christmas meaningful!
I just enjoyed this recipe at Mom’s last weekend. I’m so glad she was willing to share it with us all- it is yummy!
I have always liked cranberries, especially the ones my mom would cook up into a sauce.
Some of my children like the canned jellied cranberries, but I still prefer the sauce.
It can be messy and time consuming to make, but the rich flavor is worth the extra time!
You can even store the cranberries in the freezer until you are ready to use them.
This recipe is from our REC magazine (REC stands for Rural Electric Cooperative for you city slickers.) It isn’t quite like my mom’s, but we love it!
It does not have the “crunch” of traditional relish, but is tasty, cooks while you are doing something else & doubles as a potpourri fragrance!
Slow Cooker Orange-Cranberry Relish
From REC magazine
1 Cups Sugar
1 tsp Grated Orange Peel
1 Cup Orange Juice
1-16oz Pkg Whole Cranberries
In a slow cooker, combine sugar, orange peel & juice. Stir until dissolved. Add cranberries, stir and cover. Cook on low for 6 hours. Mash berries after cooking. Chill before serving. May be kept in refrigerator for several days.
Until next time,
Nana Shirley
For the first time in 10 years, I went home for Christmas.
For the last decade we have heated with a wood stove and were unable to leave the house in the winter for long periods of time.
Most of my children had no memories of what Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma’s looked like. They couldn’t imagine the prairie covered with snow. They had never gone sledding down the hill.
Until this year. Since we no longer heat with wood and our wonderful ground source heat pump keeps the house toasty warm whether we are here or not, we were able to pack up our bags and head north the day after Christmas!
We had a wonderful weekend sharing memories of Christmas’s past and making new ones together.
I enjoyed seeing all the Christmas decorations that were a part of my childhood (including my snowman -shown in the picture- that I made clear back in kindergarten and still hung!), reading all the cards from family friends, and sharing our chocolate goodies with each other.
There’s something about the holidays that makes us want to touch family and revisit the past.
I’m so thankful that I had this chance. There’s nothing like going home for Christmas.