Christmas in midst of wedding

We are just over one week away from the wedding! Wonderful family and friends gave Laura a beautiful kitchen shower a week before Christmas. And the house has been full with our daughters all home.

Despite the busyness with last minute wedding details, we managed to squeeze in a few Christmas traditions, including our annual visit to Old Colorado City for pics. with Santa and hot chocolate from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Then we subjected our almost official son-in-law to home movies, those years when our 4 daughters were toddlers and grade school.

And this mother of the bride was surprised by some special Christmas gifts by my amazing family... a favorite is the beautiful little Canon powershot. And one of the first pictures... our Christmas dinner! And I am savoring it all...mother of the bride is a bittersweet title.

the other christmas poem

The Excluded Animals

Only a certain
claque of beasts
is part of the
creche racket

forming a
steamy-breathed
semicircle
around the
baby basket.

Anything more
exotic than
a camel
is out of luck
this season.

Not that the
excluded animals envy
the long-lashed
sycophants;

cormorants
don't toady,
nor do toads
adore anybody
for any reason.

Nor do the
unchosen alligators,
grinning their
three-foot grin
as they laze
in the blankety waters
like the blankets on Him.
--Kay Ryan

wish list part 2

Christmas wine charms

this thermal (because I wear one almost every day)

and just for wishing....

because double shot lattes are the best!

Wish List

An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

by Barbara Brown Taylor

The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle

The Luminous Word: Entering the Mysteries of Advent & Christmas by Jan Richardson

The Prodigal God by Tim Keller

and...

these shoes from a favorite company

and this camera (because my children are growing up and going to graduate school, and getting married, and going to dances, and getting tall and I want to capture it all!)

(I'm trying the "You might also like" feature that I've seen on many blogs--but most recently here):

a favorite Christmas poem

Bring in a tree, a young Norwegian spruce,
Bring hyacinths that rooted in the cold.
Bring winter jasmine as its buds unfold --
Bring the Christmas life into this house.

Bring red and green and gold, bring things that shine,
Bring candlesticks and music, food and wine.
Bring in your memories of Christmas past.
Bring in your tears for all that you have lost.

Bring in the shepherd boy, the ox and ass,
Bring in the stillness of an icy night,
Bring in a birth, of hope and love and light.
Bring the Christmas life into this house.
--Wendy Cope, 2001