Merry Christmas-----almost!!! I will tell you, that with five children in the house, I hear at least three to four squealing voices repeat "our family Christmas count down" daily. My six-year old has taken to studying and marking calendars. I can only say, that I get a bit anxious every day when reminded, multiple times, that the days are few till Christ's birthday and my tasks are many! The children get anxious, for the day, and yet they do not experience heart burn! What is it with that? To be young and carefree! They get all the money spent on them, and yet do not have a dime to their name and not one debt either!

Kole and Jaelle came for a visit last night! My sister packed a cooler full of nutritious goodies. I have to tell on Jaelle. She may not be famous at this point, but she will be!!! Nothing gets past her, especially food! She ate her supper nicely, followed by four helpings of blueberries, her cheese stick, and other stuff. Nothing was left in the cooler, and so I cheated a little and gave her low sugar Dora the Explorer yogurt! She was thrilled and chatted to me the entire evening in the kitchen! She was so funny and delightful! When my sister came home she sympathized because she too, does the same thing at home. She too, spends the evening in the kitchen! Jaelle has always been a good eater and a grazer. Later on that evening, we were playing a game and I teasingly made a remark about Barney. Jaelle tilted her head to the one side and had a serious look on her face and said with gusto"I like Barney"--if she were a little older she would have added "so what are you going to do about it!" I had to laugh because to mention Dora, Barney, or food to Jaelle and up perks her ears! Kole looked great as well! He enjoyed playing polly pockets with his cousin Leah. He is gaining weight nicely! Many of you out there may not take that as a compliment. But, Kole once told me he was as thin as a snake. He looks better filled out like a strong tiger! Janni says he sleeps less now! Kole says his days are fun with his dad. He has blueberry waffles with special butter and a glass of goats milk for breakfast, gets dressed, brushes his teeth, takes his medicine, and plays with his dad and probably grandpa Keller too!! He is a happy boy!

I started thinking today, as I was praying for help for my worry and anxiety, if God ever gets tired of running to our rescue! I pondered how He could keep delivering us over and over from our trials and yet not get annoyed or run down. You would think we would get just a certain amount of His help and than we would be on our own! Yet, that is not the case! He hangs out in the "kitchen" all day and answers all of our every beckoning calls with love and delight. I can almost hear Him say, "there is more where that came from"! Janni and I may run out of food or patience with Jaelle. But, God never tires of meeting the needs of His children. We are blessed to know Him! I am so glad He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture. We get to graze all day! Good news for Jaelle! Anyway, in Sunday School we talked about the Tabernacle (tent/temple in the desert). The Holy of Holies is where God hung out! It is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. No one was allowed to hang out with God except the High Priest and he could only go once a year on the "Day of Atonement", for all other days, God was off limits! Every one else, women and children and men, stayed on the outside and only got to wonder what it was like to go to God and kneel in His presence. Why? They were an unholy people with unclean lips. God could not be in their presence. He could tolerate the Priest only after a blood sacrifice, ceremonial cleansing, confession of sin, and on and on. Today, the curtain has been torn in two. This points out the huge ramifications of Christ's work on the cross! It was Jesus alone who paved the way with His blood to the Holy of Holies, so that we can be made pure to kneel before a holy God anytime we want to! Do we take advantage of our privilege? We also get to house the Holy Spirit in us and become a living Temple of God! The enemy does not want us to grasp the significance of our privileged position and of our access to the powerful God of this universe! Our Holy God hangs out in our kitchen, even with the dirty dishes!!! The Israelites would not have been able to imagine this and would probably say "unfair" or "take advantage of such opportunity". For us, God says "come one, come all"--- women, children, and men washed in Christ's blood. His deliverance is there for us over and over again. It truly is a "Merry Christmas".

Jodi