Who is St. Nicholas?

My child 9 year old child was asked if he still believed in Santa. His friend's family is not going to raise their baby to believe in Santa Claus, the older child thinks it’s “very sad”. My son seemed sad when he asked me “Mom, don’t you believe in Santa?”
I had to remind him of the TRUE story of St. Nicholas and why YES – we believe in the spirit of Santa Claus. It’s the same spirit of giving to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. I researched the facts on the web for the TRUE story of St. Nicolas, the following is a brief from the web site:

“The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in, a village in what is now Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made of while still a young man.” Click on the title link to read the whole scoop!

I never raised my children to sit on Santa’s lap, Josh never wrote Santa and the presents don’t come wrapped “FROM SANTA”, he doesn’t even leave Santa cookies, Josh just wakes up to presents. I’ll never forget the Christmas Michael went back to school telling all his friends, (about 10 years old) “There MUST be a Santa because there is NO WAY my mom could afford a Sony PlayStation! We are too poor for that!” Thus developing the spirit of FAITH, we have God’s Holy Spirit within us. Christmas is about Jesus Christ and HIS celebration. Let me tell you, God like things did happen that Christmas in order to afford that PlayStation. Haven’t you had those Christmas’ where you didn’t know how you were going to make it for your kids? Well by FAITH in God alone is the only way you make it, He allows it for you to see your kids enjoy the celebration.

We can still keep Christ in Christmas and keep the spirit of Christmas alive in the hearts of kids in the morning as they wake up to a gift of joy! Isn’t it fun for you as the adult to see their joy as they play with their presents. What joy and happieness I get seeing their eyes light up in wonder as they see what was left for them or what they have in their stockings! Our Father in heaven wants us to be happy just like we want our children to be happy. Just like St. Nicholas wanted all the kids to be happy. (The Wise men came when baby Jesus lay asleep in His manger and left gifts in the night, in celebration of his birth.)

Was there a Santa Claus? Is there really a man in a red suit with 8 tiny reindeer that fly around and land on the roof and come down the chimney – of course not!? There are adults that claim when they found out it was there parents that left the presents and that they "lied" the whole time that they where crushed and devestated afterwards and maybe then it's best for them. I think most children enjoyed "Santa" and were never devestated, if you were to take a poll. If it were the case it would not be as commercialized or as fun to keep the tradition going. Traditions usually come from true stories once told and then carried out into an action and this is just what the story of Santa Claus is - a tradition of the true story of St. Nicholas. He was a man who gave from his heart serving God, he gave to orphans, the needy and all the suffering and his spirit lives on in all of us in honor our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Keep the spirit of St. Nicholas and giving alive in the hearts of your kids as you honor Christ next Christmas.
In His Spirit!
Allie

Christmas is about...

CHRISTMAS is about JESUS
He was born of a woman so we could be born of GOD....
He humbled Himself so we could be lifted up....
He became a servant so we could be made heirs....
He suffered rejection so we could be His friends....
He denied Himself so we could freely receive all things....
He gave Himself so He could bless us in every way!!!!
Where Would We Be Without J E S U S??
Who is our LORD and SAVIOR (CHRIST?)
My prayer for you is....
May your C H R I S T M A S include every blessing of HIS love today and forever.

With Faith, and Believing in HIM forever,
(This comes from my very prayerful Aunt Yolanda)
Thanks for the great Christmas Blog! ;o)
Allie

Velveteen Mommy

Dear Friends and Family,

God has ways of talking to you, I've always believed that don't you? Now I know most of you think that I get on my computer every night after work but I really don't. But today I did - I don't know why. Let me share something else, most of automatic e-mails I subscribe to I delete before reading or I send them to my folders to read later - it just depends on the subject line. Tonight for some odd reason I went ahead - after deleting a bunch of others - I opened and READ - this long story. Sometime, when GOD wants and needs to speak to you - you will click on the link and read this story, it will take about 5 minutes of your time. It's worth it.
(Just Click on the VELVETEEN MOMMY above it's a link)

Let me tell you why God spoke to me - hopefully, it won't ruin the story. I've been in pain for a while with horrible headaches, migraines. My eye muscle is twitching along with these headaches and now to top it off my blood pressure is up, probably because of the headaches. For a while the eye twitching was sporadic and now it's pretty constant. Well, the doctor has been playing with some medicine and we are trying Magnesium as well before she sends me to a Neurologist - (is that how you spell the head doc).

Anyway, during all this I've been doing what I'm thinking I should - pray!! Give all my troubles to God - Let go and Let God take care of me, as well as the doctors.

Well, from that - read the story and hear this awesome testimony of this Velveteen Mom!!
Take care of yourselves and your families with all your heart and soul, the same love you give to our faithful Lord.

Love,
Allie

Joyful is the Season!

Christmas season has official began when you have gone to your first Christmas party! Joyful times with friends, family, Christmas music, good food and the fun exchanging of the gift game begins the season of the spirit! What fun it is, right?! It's become a tradition in our family, to have a Christmas party at Josh's dad's house the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He invites all the kids and their family's from the soccer and baseball teams. Everyone has lots of fun.

However, being joyful is not always an easy thing to do as a sports parent. During the sports season there are difficult times of being soccer mom, having to travel from game to game, practice on school nights, or games on school nights then dealing with homework becomes very stressful on the whole family. Sometimes it's not easy to get along with the other kids and their parents, there is always one parent on every team and somedays, it's you and me! We all have our days. Relying on your inner strength to get along your best place to go is - God. I found this piece of advice tonight to share with everyone from Charles Swindoll:

"I have discovered that a joyful coutenance has nothing to do with one's age or one's occupation (or lack of it) or one's geography or education or marital status or good looks or circumstances. Joy is a choice! Joy is a matter of attitude that stems from one's confidence in God - that He is at work, that He is in full control, that He is in the midst of whatever has happened, is happening and will happen."

You have put gladness in my heart. Psalm 4:7

Joy to the World the Lord Has Come Let Earth Receive our King!!

Peace be with you this season!
Allie

Mercy Me

I've always been one of those kind of people that will hear a song and feel like the song is expressing exactly what I want to say. You know the feeling almost as if the song writer was in my head when they wrote the song. I know there are others out there like me, where songs just speak to you. Mercy Me has several but the one in particular that I was feeling today is one called Everything Impossible.

Today was one of those kind of days, well I often feel like this:

"I was taught to be practical in everything I do
Holding on to what is tangible, and then came You
That's when I found myself so far away, from everything I knew
I took a leap of faith

Being Catholic, everything I was taught was very different, rule base, tangible and very extreme unexplained traditions. “We just do it this way so, kneel.” It got to where when the Priest couldn’t explain something to me that I felt was common sense. I knew I was in the wrong place.

Even though You're difficult for me to explain
I know I'll never be the same

I pray I have the gift of evangelism, because that is our only mission here is to tell others about Our Lord Jesus Christ.

You're everything I cannot see
You're everything I cannot say
I know it all seems so illogical
But that's okay
You're the love You give to me
You're the love I give away
You are everything impossible
And that's okay That's okay!

All the things that make no sense to me, draw me to You
Like finding freedom by surrendering, can it be true
With everything I can and cannot know
This mystery is bringing life to me

Chorus

What's so hard to understand
What I cannot comprehend
Is that You love me the way I am

Lord, I'm so blessed, honored and thankful that you love me in spite of all my wrongs. How awesome are you God to forgive me when I have sinned and still love me! I am honored and blessed beyond measure. Amen

Chorus"

The saving grace is the freedom to total surrender of faith. What I do see are all the miracles He has worked in my life and in the lives of my friends and family. So, many prayers have been answered in my life and so many God things have happened in my life that I know that it was the grace and glory of God working in my life with out a doubt.

You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my confidence. Psalm 71:5

He has saved me from dealing with the experience a very traumatic experience in my life when I was 13 years old. While it was happening I cried out to God for help and I felt a very awe sense of peace that is hard to explain. He has been by my side since that day. I've been through hard times, trials but I've grown just like He tells us we are supposed to experience.

Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing. 1 Peter 4:12

Thanks for Reading,
For His Words,
Love,
Allie