Hello, friends! It's almost Christmas -- the fourth Sunday of Advent. Today's opening hymn in church is Good Christian Men, Rejoice. The words to this carol are from a 14th century Latin Hymn. The words were translated by John Mason Neale. Dr. Neale was born in London on January 24, 1818. In 1836 he got a scholarship to Trinity College where he was named "Best Man of the Year." Dr. Neale translated hundreds of ancient hymns, saving them for us today. The article I was reading on him from hymnary.org went on and on about all of his accomplishments. More than I've ever seen them do on anyone else. I will have to take some time and read all about him. The tune is titled In Dulci Jubilo and is a German folk dance tune from the 14th century. In the late medieval period, there was a tradition of using folk songs to teach illiterate church-goers the Gospel story and this hymn is a good example of that. Because it uses both German and Latin in the lyrics, it would be familiar to those singing it both as their song and a song of the church. Because it was set to a familiar folk tune, people could easily sing it and understand the story. Over the centuries, this hymn has been translated into many languages. The diary of an unnamed missionary tells us that on September 14, 1745 at the Moravian mission in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, this hymn was simultaneously sung in thirteen different languages. What a wonderful thought that we can sing the same song with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. And now, here's a video of the hymn. I could not find one I really liked, but of all I saw this was the best.
Christmas is coming! Have a good Fourth Sunday of Advent! Kathy
Hello, friends! I changed my mind of what I was going to show you today when I saw the pictures of my little great-granddaughter Hadley. This is her second Christmas and this year she is a little more unsure of whether she likes Santa or not.
She did want the little gift he was giving out, though. Ha, ha!
Then she was ready to take off. What a kid!
It's late and I've got to run. Have a good night and a great day tomorrow. Kathy
Hello, friends! Hope you are having a wonderful day as Christmas quickly flies our way. Joe had a very early doctor's appointment today. 8:00 a.m. comes very early when you need to leave by 7:00 a.m. to get there. When he got out we talked about going somewhere to have breakfast. I teasingly said, "We're on the right highway. Why not go out to Lancaster." He said OK. I was surprised, but why not? So away we went. We hit a lot of rush hour traffic but really made good time. As we were going along we were listening to Christmas music on the radio and just talking. It was great -- so relaxing. We both found ourselves smiling a lot. Joe took some pictures for me. It would have been hard for me when I was driving.
We got out there and couldn't decide where to eat. But my friend Marianne had just been out there yesterday and ate at Dienner's so when we saw it, we decided to go there. We both got the breakfast buffet. It was good.
I loved this sign above our table.
After we ate we went to Rockvale Mall. My sister had asked me to pick something up for her so we went to Reading China and Glass and got it. We also picked up a couple of things for us -- some jar openers (we are always looking for ours and these looked so good), some candied ginger for me (my favorite candy) and a stocking stuffer. Then we headed for the book store. Joe was looking for a Bible commentary, but they didn't have any. We did buy a $1 book to donate to Toys for Tots and I got three new books. Sorry these pictures are so dark. "The Essential Amish Cookbook" -- can't wait to try some of these recipes.
"The Amish Christmas Kitchen" -- three short stories. It looks like a quick read. Just the kind of book you need during the busy Christmas season.
And "The Greatest Gift" -- the book that the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" was based on. It's only 53 pages and I can't wait to read it!
I will try to get better pictures of them to show you. There isn't much light here right now. It started to rain out there and I didn't want to drive in a storm so we started home around 11:30 a.m. We hit a bit of traffic but the rain stopped and we got home just before 2:00 p.m. I'm glad we went and I'm glad we got home early. It's Bible Study tonight and we still have the afternoon to get dinner and get ready to go. Hope you had a good day too. Remember when I said the other day I was finished decorating? Never say never. I found another box of decorations. I'll be showing you more tomorrow. Kathy
