Happy New Year’s Eve!

This Saturday and Sunday, Johnson’s Garden is holding a storewide sale. Check out deals here.

Plus Tree Top Nursery is offering 50% off everything Christmas and 25-50% off selected items.

If you are interested in fitness classes, the City of Wichita Rec Center is offering a free week January 4-8. Plus you can register to win a free month of classes. Details here.

This is great: If you had a live Christmas tree this year, bring it to one of several Sedgwick County Environmental Services locations to have it turned into mulch. (Thanks Wichita On The Cheap!)

Have you heard about Step Into My Shoes? It is an interactive, family experience from Compassion International and Fuller Youth Institute. Compassion desires to help release the over 400 million children worldwide from extreme poverty in a sustainable fashion. Step Into My Shoes is one way to understand these children’s stories, inspire acts of service, and help families keep a global vision in front of them.

Library:

Do you know about Tour de Wichita? It is an adult reading program from January 4 – March 18 inspired by local sites. Pick up a Tour Map at any Library location and start reading genres based on places like Cowtown and the Wichita Symphony. There are even prizes involved! See all the details here.

Source

Come to Central Library today at 11:30 to ring in the New Year a little early. They will have confetti, noisemakers, and sparkling grape juice!

On Sunday January 3rd, come to Alford at 2:30 to test your skills at a variety of board and card games. Learn something new and enjoy some friendly competition.

Have a great weekend and be safe!

Last minute baking

Christmas Eve view

Elf on the Shelf jammies

Dan downloaded a Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt

Lovely

He got a hood deflector…thing

Yay! We got Quelf.

We love the GGs!

Your 7 Days? (Hope Christmas was beautiful for you)

I have been seeing bloggers post their most popular pieces of the year. And I figured out how they were doing it (hint: the site does it for you if you know where to look).

So, based purely on numbers, here are the most popular posts of the year:

10) Training vs. Trying – doing what we can to let Him do what only He can

9) Garage Sale Treasures – loved thinking through this

8) Family Prayer Walk Update – I love how He’s put our family together

7) 13 Years Strong – And I love who I team up with

6) Hosea 11 – He teaches us how to walk, one day at a time

5) God’s Word – Literature, yes. God’s Word, heck yes.

4) Life Story in 5 Chapters – Learning new patterns is hard

3) Lessons in Sharing – No one wants to be a project

2) Capsule Wardrobe – It makes me laugh this was one of the top posts because it feels…lightweight. But I get it: I love stuff like this and enjoy seeing how others make wardrobes stretch.

1)Winter – thanks to a Modern Mrs. Darcy link up

I’d love to hear more from you in 2016. I know you’re out there. You may be forcing me to do some sort of give-away so you will comment. I’m cool with that.

Merry Christmas Eve!

The two days following Christmas, bring your people to the Wichita Art Museum for Winter Art Mania. Admission is free and will include movies, gallery exploration, and art making.

On Monday the 28th, from 10:30 – 11:00, Watermark is featuring a Special Story Time with the Snow Sister Princesses. Wear a costume, take some pictures.

If you have guests in town for the holidays, you can bring them to the Wichita YMCA for free through the 31st if you are a member. (Then on January 1st, everyone is welcome to try the Y for free for their Open House!)

Library

The Library will be closed starting today, the 24th, at 3:00 p.m. and will reopen Monday the 28th.

On the 28th from 2:30 – 4:00, come to Alford Branch for a family movie: Bear Snores On and The Snowy Day!

Tuesday the 29th from 2:30 – 3:30 come to Evergreen to make your own ice cream. At Central, try your hand at some water experiments, same time. And from 2:30 – 4:00 at Rockwell on the 29th, enjoy a variety of family-friendly games and prizes.

Wednesday the 30th Westlink is hosting a Frozen Fun Party from 2:30-3:30. You can build an Olaf and play games with the Snow Queen. Costumes encouraged.

Then at Angelou on the 30th, you can practice making ice cream from 2:30-3:30.

And for Teens, come to Alford on the 30th from 2:30-3:30 to test your spaghetti-building skills. Use uncooked noodles and marshmallows to build the highest tower.

The Library has your back during Winter Break, parents.

I won’t be posting again until next week. Have a wonderful time celebrating that He came. Go to a Christmas Eve Service, even if you don’t usually do that sort of thing. Forgive someone. Hug a lot of people. Rejoice.

Merry Christmas!

Hobby Lobby is a Winter Wonderland

What we do on sunny December mornings. Drawing The Grinch.

Shaving carrots for Plof, an Uzbekistani dish. You see.

Come over and we’ll make it for you.

Annual Sugar Cookie Making

What the Boy Table does when there’s a Girl’s Table behind them

Making Teacher Christmas Thank Yous. Thank you, thank you, Teachers!

I’m not sure why I’ve never mentioned our neighborhood Ace Hardware. Oh my word, we love them. The boys especially love the free token for a gumball.

Glory

Your 7 Days?

Why is The Sound of Music so beautiful?

Source

We only stopped flipping channels on Edelweiss. Then we moved on. By “we” I mean Dan and the boys.

One day I’ll teach them to love it. Especially this exchange:

Captain Von Trapp: Fraulein, were you this much trouble at the Abbey?

Maria: Oh, much more, sir.

Makes me smile.

“The word of the LORD came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month:

‘Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.

‘On that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Haggai 2:20-23

Well, it’s the same day as last time. But now God through Haggai has a word specifically for Zerubbabel.

I am the God of the nations. In charge of kingdoms and powers. And I choose you to represent my authority on earth.

It’s all very confusing. The people of Judah were never politically free again after the exile. Ruled over by others, they must have wondered when this Word from God would come to pass. It is no wonder God’s people were waiting for a warrior king to come and set them free by the time they were ruled by the Romans. Certainly, that was the plan, right?

But God rarely chooses who we think He will. Zerubbabel, the civil leader of the exiles, is in Christ’s lineage. The way he would be like God’s signet ring, a sign of His authority, is by doing the work of governing the people God gave him and rebuilding God’s house. Then by trusting that “on that day” of God’s choosing, He would come to show His authority over all earthly powers.

And He did. In a dirty feeding trough.

This sovereign, all-powerful God – the Most High Who could shake the heavens and earth, overturn thrones, and overthrow militaries – came to relate.

He came like one of us. Made Himself obey the laws of nine months’ gestation and milk before solid foods. He subjected Himself to the authority of imperfect parents and endured puberty. He was truly tempted in every way we are. Not as in, oh I see how that could be tempting. But, I really do want to do that. I genuinely want to take the easy, fleshly way out in this situation.

But He didn’t.

And since He didn’t, He could be the perfect Lamb without blemish or defect. The One Sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

And because of that, He defeats earthly kingdoms with a Kingdom that can never be shaken. And we who trust in Him live in this Kingdom. One that is meek instead of haughty. Courageous rather than callous. Generous over greedy.

A Kingdom we can only live in in His power.

But that’s how it defeats the world. It is other-worldly. When this Kingdom advances, it’s clear it is by His strength and not ours. Oh, we do work. If Haggai is about anything, it’s about doing the thang.

But the glory and beauty and wonder come from this Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father.

And a broken world celebrates His very Name is Prince of Peace.

Library first, because…new website! Take a look around. Their new digs include Suggested Reads, easy Branch Locator, updated Calendar of Events, and an E-read section.

A couple of upcoming events:

Come to Linwood Branch on Monday the 21st from 6-6:45 to learn about the Science of Snow and Ice and make beaded icicles to take home.

Then on Tuesday the 22nd, you can come to Central Library from 10:30 – noon for Walk-In Tech Help. Bring any device: laptop, tablet, cell phone, and learn anything from advanced computer techniques to job resume tips.

Youth Horizons is needing towels and bedding to open their two new residential homes. If you’re out shopping, pick up some household items to help make their youth feel at home.

Game Night at Reverie Saturday the 19th from 6-8 pm.

The Sedgwick County Extension Office is also hosting a family game night on Friday the 18th from 7 – 9 pm

ICT S.O.S. has a Giving Tree up at Mead’s Corner to benefit the Child Advocacy Center. Grab a gift idea and bless some children in Wichita.

If giving to the Wichita Children’s Home is on your list for Christmas, you can see their Wishlist here.

And, finally, you should just see this.

Have a wonderful weekend!

He looked up a recipe, made it all himself, even wrote menus for us to order from.

Our friend performing at his church’s Christmas program. Adorable.

Painting at this church. I like it.

Chocolate Milk fun

We seem to break out Catan more in the winter months.

Your 7 Days?

Our church finishing up the Book of Mark coinciding with Advent this year has been priceless.

Yesterday, our pastor talked about “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Jesus had settled the issue the night before in Gethsemane. He was resolutely laying down His life.

Yet He honestly grieved.

Several times this year, our pastor has pointed out that maturity is not stoicism. It is not becoming so unfeeling that you are passionless. Maturity means feeling, grieving, wrestling…and staying on the cross anyway.

We, of course, will never do what this Baby turned Sacrificial Lamb did. It is finished. But as we die to ourselves and take up our own crosses, we have permission to grieve. But we keep dying and keep bearing.

Because there is only One worthy. And He even supplies the strength.