Congratulations to our young winners of the Corral Search and Find puzzle coloring contest. Thank you to everyone who sent in an entry, and also to the many moms, dads and club advisors for helping to get those entries in the mail. I absolutely loved seeing some of the same names for this contest that I saw for the last! I added the second and third place prizes because with so many entries I just had to have more than one winner. If you are wondering how we made our selections, we put all our qualifying entry names in a pot and blindly selected the first, second and third place names. If interest from our Corral youngsters continues at this pace, we are just going to have to do more contests! So look for Morning Star Kid’s page contests in 2014 and send in those entries!
This time of year I always look forward to the holidays. Joe and I maintain traditions from both sides of our family, but we have also created many of our own with our daughter Kelsie. I love the familiarity of these traditions but as I get older, I’m starting to wonder about some of them; like doing all my wrapping on Christmas Eve! Oh wait, that’s not really a tradition, its procrastination. But the best tradition of all is spending time with our family.
At this stage of my life the holidays are exactly what they were meant to be, time with those we love, reaffirming what we are truly thankful for, rejoicing in our Lord’s birth, and celebrating new beginnings as well as the New Year. Food, gift giving (and receiving), as well as a little bit of adult beverage are all still part of the mix, but I find that now, if they weren’t, each holiday would still hold the same meaning. I guess it is good to be a little older and wiser at times.
Since Christmas is quickly approaching, I’d like to share a poem my dad wrote. I featured it last year in our December issue, but I’m so proud of it, I’d like to present it again.
Christmas is a time of love
That everyone can share.
A time when we find joy and peace
And cast away despair
Christmas is a time of joy
You feel it everywhere.
With peace and love deep in our hearts
We show the world we care
Christmas is a time of peace
The spirit fills the air
And when we pray to lift our souls
Our faith will take us there.
Christmas means love, joy and peace
Let nothing you dismay
For Christ was born in Bethlehem
Rejoice it’s Christmas day.
~Ralph Ward
Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year,
