OK, this isn't exactly "self" promotion, but once again, my church (Zumbro Lutheran) is presenting their annual Christmas concert, the "Service of Lessons and Carols", at St. Mary's Hospital chapel, on Sunday, December 20th, 6:30pm-8:30pm. Open to the public. I'll be directing and playing handbells, and as always there will be many great groups and ensembles playing traditional Christmas music. The picture above is from 2007 - a little blurry. For people who have never been to St. Mary's "chapel" (I quote that because it's huge), it's a beautiful place.
See my facebook page for additional details.
I can't believe it's already December 12th! People will start dropping off of work this week for the rest of the year, I plan on working the Monday and Wednesday of Christmas week, and I'm very excited that a friend of mine from college will be coming up that Monday night and we're going skiing Tuesday. And there might even be a lot of snow with all that we've had now!
The storm this week sort of forced me to make some decisions about my ailing snowblower and what to do about it, and after deciding the one I really wanted to buy if I was going to buy one was $950, I decided to sell the old one for cheap and get a snow removal contract for the year. Four different friends recommended "Minnesota Outdoor Maintenance" and the guy was very friendly and thorough on the phone, price was reasonable, and did a nice job clearing everything out from the Tuesday/Wednesday stuff. It's nice to have that taken care of - the snow of course, and not wondering if the old snowblower was going to start or work. For those of you who think I sound lazy, I'm really not - I don't mind shoveling, and on the lighter days I will. The problem is the heavy days and having the time to do it - snow isn't like lawn mowing that you can sort of do on a schedule or put off another day if you need to.\
Both Erin and I are avoiding mainstream shopping for the most part - partly just not buying so much, and the things we are doing have been ordered online. If you're not one of those last-minute people, online shopping is sure a lot easier and less stressful, and can probably save you a bit of money too if you are willing to look around.
Otherwise, I'm just enjoying the season, seeing friends, attending a few small gatherings, and looking forward to some time off! I hope everyone is finding this year's holiday season hopeful and exciting, as well as rejuvenating, and a time to be with those you love.
I'll leave you with a great quote from a video they showed at church last week - the video was describing the aspects of Christmas that we often seem to miss out on in today's world. One of the statistics mentioned was that it would cost $10 billion for everyone in the world to have clean sources of drinking water. Americans spend $450 billion on Christmas every year. Kinda makes you think about it a little bit.
The quote I'll leave you with: "Give less presents. Give more presence."
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