Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas happiness

I took a quick trip thru the house with my camera on Christmas Eve...and this is what we saw.

My cute little tree :)


Sparkly Christmas ornaments...



The "music store" in the miniature Christmas Village



 Poinsettias, of course...




Advent candles


I love these enormous amaryllis blooms -- stunning!



The reason He came.


I've had some time in the midst of the busyness to stop and ponder the magnitude of Christ's coming. He said his aim was to proclaim liberty to the captives, to heal the brokenhearted, and for that he left a perfect existence in heaven and came here to live and suffer and rise again.  It seems impossible.  But He did it.

He was opposed at every turn, by people who hated him, by people who just didn't know any better, and by Satan and all his demons (can you imagine the battles that must have raged behind the scenes??).  But he came, and he did perfectly everything he came to do.  Such great love.


Where shepherds lately knelt and kept the angel’s word, 
I come in half-belief, a pilgrim strangely stirred;
But there is room and welcome there for me,
But there is room and welcome there for me.
In that unlikely place I find him as they said:
Sweet newborn Babe, how frail!  And in a manger bed:
A still, small voice to cry one day for me,
A still, small voice to cry one day for me.

How should I not have known Isaiah would be there,
His prophecies fulfilled?  With pounding heart I stare:
A child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me,
A child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me.

Can I, will I forget how Love was born, and burned
It’s way into my heart—unasked, unforced, unearned,
To die, to live, and not alone for me,
To die, to live, and not alone for me?
(This song was written by Jaroslav Vajda in the 1980s, and my choir sang it at our Christmas concert.  It's become a new favorite of mine!)

Next posts: a recent portrait session with the fabulous Cox family, and some photos from last week's lovely Jewish wedding.  :)  Meanwhile I'm going to finish house-cleaning (both literally and digitally), catch up on things, and spend some time with both of my sisters, who are in town this week!  Yay!  I'll post again in a couple days.  Till next time, friends....

- Kelsey
 
Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
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4 comments:

  1. LOVE the Aspen leaf ornament. Oh my goodness, I want one. ;-)

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  2. Gorgeous pictures! I especially LOVE the Amaryllis Blooms!

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  3. Thanks for posting those lyrics.
    I'll have to look that up.

    Chris sent us a Christmas card and I couldn't read the signature - but I know it was from you, because your name was on the back. Beautiful picture of Yosemite Falls? Bridalveil?

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  4. Scott, was it the moonbow? With stars above the falls? (That's the Big Dipper, btw...see if you can pick it out...) That would be Lower Yosemite Falls. :)

    Here's one version of "While Shepherds Lately Knelt": http://youtu.be/4uBG_aV7YDQ. Not the best recording but you get the idea. Gorgeous song.

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