An Unforgetable Christmas !

Part 3: Two dreams came true

We hope you all had a merry and God-centered Christmas ! This year again, we were thinking about what God wants for Christmas. So we did our best to give, open and surrender our HEART to our Savior, the Light of the world, the Prince of Peace. We ended up being blessed beyond our hope and dreams.

Since couple years now, I dreamed to have a nativity scene. I could not find it.. So I finally gave up ! Then something amazing happened. The first day of December, we discovered a present at our door step with a card saying this:

And then, every few days, we received gifts at our door step from those mysterious friends!

Each gift bag had one character of the Nativity,

The last day, December 25th, we got baby Jesus, the true meaning of Christmas!!

God is good, all the time! The second dream that came true is the wonderful Christmas celebration at our church. Our family was part of a play called: Christmas in reverse! Finally, I had my cousin Sara visiting from Montreal with her three boys and my Nephew Zié and his wife Nicole from Washington State to share Christmas with us. Those are some pictures of what will be for our family : a CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER !!

Nema & Dara are the angels, Daniel was Joseph and Michael was the hotel host.

Marc and me playing Adam & Eve character

Feeling blessed to have my family together !

A table set for twelve people !

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. God bless you !!

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TOYS IN MY HEAD!

One morning, our daughter Dara woke up very tired: she hadn’t slept much that night! I asked her the reason for her insomnia, she replied: “I do not know mom, I think I had toys in my head” . It was funny, but it was her way, an 8 years old child, to explain all the thoughts that trotted in her little head that kept her from sleeping. So, for her, insomnia = toys in the head!

I also had this week, “toys in my head.” No way to sleep. The reason: a lot of thoughts, feelings, emotions … in my “little” head! 

Can we say we are too blessed? If this is the case, I feel so blessed! I started to count all the blessings of God in my life and dear God, how I am grateful!

If I was these following characters and I was asked: “how do you see every day that God gives you?” my answer would be:

Artist: one day timed to a masterpiece.

Prisoner: another day to repent of my sins.

Scientist: another day for experiments.

president: another precious day to be a good leader.

Doctor: countless moments to save lives.

Romantic: another day to give lots of hugs.

A child: another whole day to play.

After all, I can be any of these characters for real, every day that God gives me !

I have toys in my head because I discover that every day is a new day full of opportunities to be a better person!

First Canadian Christmas-2

Wow, there are so many things going on this holiday season with us in Edmonton! We assisted two concerts  of Nema and Dara’s class choir and it was beautiful. Daniel played percussion during his school band’s concert . We also took part in our church Christmas gala! And, the cold, the snow continue their journey with us!

With my family, we love these times of celebration. In addition, this year our Christmas will be white, what we always dreamed of ever since Belgium. If these festivities bring joy, good mood with its bright decorations and good deals, we feel it in the wallet…

Often you decide to avoid foolish buys (gifts or other stuff), but in the end, if you do not control your mad desire for shopping, you end up with a loaded trolley and a receipt longer than yourself (I’m exaggerating a bit), to finally get home asking yourself: “Why did I buy all these things? ” Confession: this is what happened to me this week. And my excuse was: “I have four children and gifts are very important for them to keep the joyous Christmas spirit.” And then God refocus me in my priorities with these words received from a sister of our community:

” Often, most of us find life to be very busy as we try to meet all the expectations that the world tends to throw at us. We have work responsibilities. We have children, husband, wife parents and other family members who require our attention.  We often find it difficult to find the time to nurture friendships and we sometimes leave ourselves at the very back of the line.

Now, the Christmas season is just ahead of us and life is about to get even more hectic. We struggle to get the shopping done, bake, wrap, decorate and attend various family and work related events.  As Christian, we are also very conscience of what the TRUE meaning of Christmas is. We find joy in the knowledge that we have a savior whose birth will be the light in our lives. Without Jesus there would be no hope in all the craziness life tosses at us.”

Wow, just focus on the real reason for Christmas: Jesus, light of the world! How will you feel if on your birthday, everyone buy gifts for themselves and do not pay any attention to you?

“Peace on earth among men of good will!”