A CHRISTMAS HYMN *

* Come, Your Hearts & Voices Raising, Sts. 1, 2, 6, LW #48

"Come, your hearts & voices raising, Christ the Lord with gladness praising; Loudly sing His love amazing Worthy folk of Christendom.

"Christ from heav'n to us descending And in love our race befriending; In our need His help extending, Saved us from the wily foe.

"Gracious Child, we pray, oh, hear us, From Your lowly manger cheer us, Gently lead us & be near us Till we join your choir above."

CHRISTMAS DAY

Derek, Rachel, & Bentley came over for Christmas dinner. We Zoomed with the rest of the family, even Craig in Texas. We enjoyed ham, cheesy potatoes, crescent rolls, oriental salad, green beans, & pie. Rachel made the potatoes & pie. Now we get to eat ham & cheese sandwiches & leftover salad for the next few days. That makes me happy.

After supper we watched Bentley open presents. We gave him another Christmas banana. This time we wrapped it in a box, so he couldn't guess it. [We gave him a Christmas banana on Christmas Eve, & I told him the story of Bob the 4th Wiseman & the Christmas banana he gave Baby Jesus. Bentley wasn't all that impressed.]

WHAT WE'RE EXPECTING

We planned to spend a couple of nights at the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, Monday & Tuesday. I cancelled this morning because of our forecast. Norfolk is supposed to receive 6.5" of snow from Tuesday into Wednesday. Nebraska City is supposed to receive 9+". Derek doesn't work for his dad anymore, so he no longer has access to snow removal equipment. I guess we'll have to break down & buy a snow blower, but we won't have time before this blizzard hits.

WHAT I'M READING

I finished reading "1861:  The Civil War Awakening," by Adam Goodheart. If you're a Civil War buff, it would be a great read. Now I'm reading "To Wake the Giant:  A Novel of Pearl Harbor," by Jeff Shaara. I can hardly wait to find see how it turns out.

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE . . . NEBRASKA

The Omaha World Herald reported that, according to the census, Nebraska lost 5,000 people during the last decade. We don't care, since it limits the number of people moving here from blue states. [No offense, California.]

"Minister has 260 Nativity scenes on display at his home . . . Nativity scenes--260 of them--fill the dining room at the Rev. Gale Dorn's home in Axtell. They even spill out into his living room." Omaha World Herald, 12/25

"Arctic blast could bring snow, but not like 2009 . . . For Christmas 2009, Omahans hunkered down in a sudden, enforced quarantine as a blizzard roared outside."  Ditto, 12/23. COMMENT:  We flew out from Omaha to Florida on the day that the storm commenced. We left on one of the last flights before the airport shut down. While we were in Ft. Walton Beach, spending time with Jerry & Anita, Rachel sent us a picture of our driveway. There was a drift which blocked the garage door, & we wondered how we would make it into the garage when we returned. The shuttle driver helped us shovel out our car when we got back to Omaha. We arrived home to find the driveway cleared. Derek, Rachel's boyfriend at the time, had cleared it. We told Rachel that he was The One.