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Our Daily Thread 12-3-13

Good Morning!

22 Days Until Christmas!

On this day in 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States. 

In 1910 the neon lamp was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show.

In 1931 Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time.

In 1950 Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast. 

And in 1968 the rules committee of Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that in 1969 the pitcher’s mound would be lowered from 15 to 10 inches. This was done in order to “get more batting action.”

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Quote of the Day

“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?”

Gilbert  K. Chesterton

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First up today, the very talented Lindsey Stirling.

This next one the lyrics and music were written by Paul Williams, who has a birthday today too.

And it’s also Carlos Montoya’s. From RarGuitarVC

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

30 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-3-13”

  1. There used to be a front page reminder after Thanksgiving, “23 Shopping Days Till Christmas”
    That was before every day was a shopping day. When we lost that, I believe we lost something important.

    We also lost something when we lost Paul Harvey. 😥

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  2. Good morning everyone.
    AJ you are NOT helping with the daily countdown to Christmas! 😉
    Middle Son is scheduled to arrive on the 18th. I am praying that his visit will go well. Last night his dad ordered him a few Christmas presents. I would like to have them wrapped and under the tree before he arrives. His main gift is his plane ticket, but I couldn’t let him be here Christmas morning when everyone else is opening something and not have anything. Even I know that and I am the selfish daughter and mother of only children.

    Do you set a budget on how much you will spend for Christmas? How do you handle the gifts that people receive? Do you spend equally on your children? How do you pick a gift for each person?

    I find it very hard to think of gifts for Mr. P.
    One thing he wants is a wooden football. I know I have mentiioned before the “handyman” that I kniew a long time ago and lost track of. He went to prison for almost 10 years until the father of the boy he had accidentally killed helped to get him released. The father is now a minister and they travel around sharing their testimony. Anyway when J first went to prison he was given some sort of art package and discovered that he truly is an artist. He takes these strips of wood and forms then into a football then paints them. Each one takes him hours and hours= He says he had plenty of time in prison to do this, what else was he going to do.
    His story is quite amazing. In talking to him we discovered that he was in the same “area” as the ex-husband of a girl I grew up with. They were divorced and he told her he needed her to sign some documents and they met in front of a business. He shot and killed her. It was one of the worst funerals I ever attended..

    I hope you all have a great day.

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  3. From 5 Arrows’ list of important things in a marriage.

    “7. My spouse takes responsibility and apologizes when he’s wrong. Yes No”
    I’ve always said that if I’m ever wrong, I’ll immediately apologize.
    😉
    It isn’t a bad list. Some of those things are intuitive.

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  4. AJ, I love Silent Night by Kate Miner – it’s in 4/4 time instead of ¾ to the best of my knowledge. I also love Silent Night by the David Crowder band. Both versions build towards the end making me feel so very grateful that God sent us His Son. I feel like dancing at the end of the David Crowder one. This is a very, very big hint 🙂

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  6. We set a budget for Christmas gifts per person. I think monetary value should be equal for my kids, but hubby feels that it’s the gift that matters, not how much it costs. Therefore if child 1 needs/wants something that costs $50 and child 2’s gift/need is only $40, we do not have to buy another gift to make up the difference. It’s a struggle every year for us (even after 25 years!) And I think every one should have gifts to open – even when we’ve agreed not to spend on each other, I always have a small gift just for the fun of opening it. Last year, I bought hubby some fancy cheese – he loves cheese and we had agreed that the water well was going to be our gift to each other. It was fun watching him open it too! He was very surprised.

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  7. I am the most difficult one to buy for. Nothing I need. Not much I want. I can’t think of anything. I broke my K-Mart watch while trying to change the battery. I told Elvera she could buy me a watch. She said, “You’ll have to pick it out.” I’ll buy myself a watch.
    I will likely get another shirt.

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  8. Chas, the guy I know shared a cell with the guy who killed my friend. It is hard to tell that story and still respect privacy.
    You can’t be around the guy I know more than 30 minutes without hearing his story. He will be on probabation for the rest of his life, but what an awe inspiring story of forgiveness and two men sharing what God did in their lives.

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  9. Good morning! I had a horrible migraine yesterday, so we had a school holiday due to teacher illness. Feeling very grateful that my head is all better today. We will resume school at 9:00 this morning.

    I’m terribly behind in my Christmas preparations. The house is decorated, but I’ve bought very few gifts. As a new homeschool mom, I’m having difficulty managing my time.

    Today’s QoD: We do set a budget for gifts and try to keep spending fairly equal for our kids. However, last year we spent way more on older daughter as she got a saddle. Becca still thought she got more as she had more presents in number, so it didn’t seem to matter. I have a hard time staying in budget — I want to get most things on their lists. We draw names for extended family, which helps a lot, as my family-of-origin is rather large.

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  10. Re Christmas gifts for kids: My husband keeps track of the costs (and does most of the buying) for the girls’ gifts, and if one ends up getting more (in terms of costs), then he buys something else for the other. We all make lists, which I’m not really crazy about (you aren’t exactly “surprised” by most gifts, and it seems to encourage greed–I’m not saying that I’ve seen anyone be greedy, because I haven’t, but the buyer doesn’t have to “think about” what to get whereas the giftee has to think about what she wants, making the focus a little more on “what I’m getting”), but it does work. And I know that a lot of gifts I’ve gotten through the years have been things I don’t need or want, and it is notoriously harder to buy for a man, so it does remove wasting money for things the person won’t want.

    For me, I wouldn’t be inclined to make sure what everyone got was the same price, because (1) as long as they’re not widely disparate, since each person gets what she wants it’ll seem like she got “the best” assortment and each year someone will get more and it evens out and (2) I try to buy things on sale, so the actual cost isn’t always a good reflection of the “value.” If I spend $10 on something that started out at $50, should it count as $10 or as $50?

    We do end up getting people a few things that aren’t on their list, and those are often the best gifts. For example, two years ago we gave our younger daughter a Spanish/English Bible. She hadn’t even thought about getting a Spanish Bible, but she loves Spanish and she got tears in her eyes when she opened it. (She ended up losing it, so this year a replacement made her list.) And to me it’s sweet when the girls get something for me that isn’t actually on my list (and they always do so); that they “attempt” to know me well enough to do so speaks volumes. (Now they’ve learned that chocolate doesn’t have to be on my list for them to buy me dark chocolate, but they’ve also bought me cardmaking supplies and a book or two.)

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  11. Good Morning all! Today is our last day of relative warmth…tomorrow’s high is to be 8…Thursday…1…..our Canadian friends are sharing their cold air mass with us! 🙂
    A couple of years ago we decided to give the kids money…all given the same amount….with the stipulation that they “make a memory” with their family….one of the kids took their family on a ski trip for a weekend…the son took his family to Mammoth Caves for a weekend…the other went on a weekend camping trip…the kiddo who still lives with us…well…she enjoyed an extended shopping trip 🙂 We loved hearing all about their family trips and the memories made (and we got to see photos!). We need nothing and they all tell us we are difficult to buy for…last year we told them they could bake us something…this year..we aren’t eating wheat or sweets…soooo…we told them we always enjoy a good smelling candle…looks like we will be enjoying candles this year! 🙂

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  12. Ooh, candles — one of the best things of the holiday season. Although I have to be very careful now that there’s a cat around the house. I have some of the flickering battery candles (they’re made of real wax) and those are really very pretty and safe (but can be pricey).

    I went ahead and used real candles this year in the Advent wreath. I only light the candle for the week on Sunday nights when I do the devotions then blow it out when I’m done. But I do love the flicker of a pretty candle. I have a few holiday scented ones also that I’ll use again this year, the full-on decorating won’t begin in earnest until I get a little time off work. But walking the dogs at night is getting to be more enjoyable with all the neighborhood lights going up. 🙂

    I don’t have a lot of gifts to buy (many of my older and even same-age friends have decided to stop with the gift-giving, which I think is kind of sad but … I suppose it makes practical sense, especially when we’re all trying to get rid of things at this point!).

    Maybe Chas would like a painted wooden football. Or another pet rock. Or a real puppy! 🙂

    That Canada air mass is coming our way, too, though it will warm up by the time it reaches us. Still, it will qualify as a “cold snap” in SoCal (which would be a winter “warm snap” where many of you live). 🙂 It’s supposed to arrive by tonight.

    I’m doing a story today on one of our town’s historic Victorian homes that’s currently up for sale. As a sales strategy, the realtors are advertising it as a chance for anyone who’s interested to get a peek inside the home which is a historic landmark and hasn’t been open to the public before. But I’m told everyone who walks in has to endure the sales pitch. 😉 Photographer and I will be getting a private tour so I doubt they’ll bother trying to sell it to a couple poor print journalists.

    So far my fence barricade seems to have worked. Cowboy’s being successfully contained.

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  13. ‘Mornin’ all. Tychicus pointed out an error in my figuring the winner of last weeks football contest. AJ only had 7 correct, Tychicus had 8, so he won. Sorry for the error.

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  17. Boring little Nest story: one of the sixteen year olds was proudly showing me the new basketball shoes he bought for himself last night. (They are required to buy their own stuff from about age fifteen on, though they do get a small clothing allowance to help with that.) We were discussing the pros and cons of various aspects and I mentioned that the ankle supports only worked if the shoes were tied. They all were laughing about how they used to run around with loose laces and no belts and now they have respect for themselves and others so don’t have that problem. It reminded me of our Thanksgiving dinner (and about every dinner) where we all sat around the table and visited and chatted and laughed. Did you know that often when a child enters foster care, and sometimes even after years of foster care, the children have never sat at a table with family for a meal? Most of mine had that experience. Imagine, never sitting at the table with those you love and sharing a meal….It is why we continue to think of adopting more.

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  18. I just emailed my reply, Kim. We’ve been having some trouble with our email lately (mostly on the receiving end, though, not so much with sending), but if you don’t receive it for some reason, let me know. Thanks again so much.

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  19. Christmas presents: I just get everybody a book. They know what to expect. I get the same for their birthdays. They all seem happy with them. The others tell the new ones what to expect so it is not a surprise.

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  20. Trivial correction from yesterday:
    The Schick commercial was,
    “Push, Pull
    Click Click
    Change blades
    That quick”.

    😦 When Elvera goes to a drugstore or grocery store, and I’m waiting, “Just a jiff” or “back soon” has no meaning. And there’s a .95 probability that she will come back with something else in addition to the item she went for.
    We do not go shopping together.

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  22. Chas, my husband and I often shop together. In fact, when we were courting we spent an awful lot of time in malls, based on our commitment not to be alone together behind closed doors. We’d go to the mall (esp. the bookstore) or McDonald’s, or we’d go to a friend’s house or the park. And I had a girlfriend who’d graciously come to my house one day during each visit. She’d bring a sewing project and sit in the other room, and all three or us would eat lunch or breakfast together.

    But those times in the mall showed me I had a nice, patient man. I’m really not much of a shopper (though I can spend a couple hours in a bookstore); right now I’m wearing a pair of pants that’s a year old and a sweatshirt I bought in 1989 (to take to college with me). I try to buy clothing that won’t “go out of style” so that I can wear it until it wears out. Nevertheless, I am more of a shopper than most men, and having a husband who’ll patiently window shop with me, or take a walk with me and patiently wait while I take photos of a butterfly, is a gift, and not one I take for granted. I know most men just “can’t” do that.

    I do notice, though, that when I go grocery shopping by myself I buy more items that aren’t on the list, since I take more time going through the store! But that’s because I’m conscious of not making him wait while I loiter.

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  23. We don’t have a set budget for gifts but try to be reasonable in giving practiced gifts. We buy a lot of second hand books and cds along with a few new. We give and receive a few clothing items. None of my immediate family members are people who have any desire for the latest and greatest new tech items. I do have a friend with whom I exchage gifts via flat rate boxes full of small gifts for each other. This year she has a new dog so I am including a few doggie items.

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  25. Our family is now making lists. Since I am not nearby, I have no idea what they need or want and they have no way of know what I wish that I had. But when they were younger I would study all year to figure out exactly what they wanted. And then would even shop the end of summer sales. One time my daughter made a list and it said, “I want whatever Mom gets me.”

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  26. I try to be equal with all the kids, my husband ( the baby of his family) doesn’t see this need. So far I’ve been able to control the adorable grandkids: a book and a donation to their college fund.

    (My parents used to just give money to their college funds. My son explained on his tenth birthday that the funds were “used so you can have fun in college.” Hmmm).

    Speaking of gifts, over on my website, we’re having a giveaway of a recipe booklet compiled by the Pioneer Christmas Collection writers. It features a recipe linked to their story and a more modern Christmas tradition. It’s a raffle and the grand prize is an autographed copy of both my Christmas collections.

    I put it up last night to show my cowriters and it’s gotten a lot of coverage–join the fun if you’re interested. If Mail Chimp doesn’t work for sending the PDF link, however, my family may be spending Christmas individually emailing folks–the number is close to 500 already!

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  30. Really cool Lindsey Stirling video! It made me want to get my viola out of its case and go play it while dancing in the snow. And it was snowing for a while today, too! I chickened out, though, not wanting the neighbors to wonder what had gotten into me. 😉

    QoD: We have no Christmas budget. (We have no budget of any sort at this time, actually — long story for another time.) The leftover money after paying the bills in December gets spread between gifts and the rest of the usual categories: food, gasoline, etc. We’ve always been able to find some money to purchase some gifts. And it helps that we don’t have any credit cards (except for one to a home improvement store that my husband uses only for summertime building projects), so we’re not spending money we don’t have. We also don’t worry about trying to make it all equal between the kids, either. We don’t think that’s necessary, or a reflection of the real world, as things aren’t always equal anyway.

    There’s a lot more I could add on this subject, but not enough time. I enjoyed reading all the other opinions, traditions, and so on all of you have shared.

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