It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

There's a light dusting of snow, the temperature is hovering around 20 degrees, and the radio is feeding us a steady diet of Bing, Nat, and Brenda. Must be Christmas. I love this time of year.

My wife does a wonderful job of making our house a warm, homey kind of place. I have but a few jobs in this decorating process:

• hanging the lights from the gutters/roof (done!)
• getting the Christmas tree set up (Monday)
• putting lights on the tree (Monday)

We go out each year in search of the perfect Christmas tree from a local tree farm. A few years ago we stumbled onto the Concolor Fir. It fills the house with the scent of oranges! How cool is that?

I want to do a little shopping, but not too much. We're wrestling through the consumeristic battleground, trying to honor God with our resources while expressing our love for others in the giving of gifts. It's real easy to drop a lot of cash on stuff that's going to end up lost, broken, or unwanted in a few weeks.

But for now, I'm off to spend some time praying through the Christmas story.

I was reading Luke 2 the other day while I was waiting for a deer to walk by me (she did--but that's another story!). I think I want to know more about Simeon...