Marsha's Blog

Last week I talked about the “Oranges in the Stockings”, and those simple joys of small gifts on Christmas morning.   Christmas stockings go way back in both the Woods and Smith family traditions. For us, it was a way to postpone the feeding frenzy of opening presents until after breakfast. In my Smith family growing up, we had stockings, a proper hot nourishing breakfast with clean up, and then, and only then, we’d push on to the real business of presents. But that’s another story, maybe best for the shrink. For many years Tony & I played the game of gathering and hiding “stocking stuffers” all thru the year, then finding a way to sneak them into their appointed places on Christmas Eve. Now that the children have grown and gone, the mantle of responsibility has gone along with them, and we love hearing the stories of how they have produced the magic in their own homes. Without giving it much thought, we always ended up, after placing the small gifts inside the stocking, r...

 Good Morning All, As the ‘lead up’ to Christmas is in full swing, just like most of you, I’m wondering what to get for so-in-so ………. trying to think of what they’d really like. I’m beginning to think teen grandkids are the hardest of the lot.   Thinking about this, I had a flashback to my daughter’s first Christmas with us.  God led us to her in a lovely Russian orphanage, 3 years old and beyond the age of government support, but with nowhere to go.  She’d been treated well, but as we got to know her, we realised that there had been some ‘scarcities’.  Thankfully they were only material things, like food and clothing; it was obvious that she was much loved, but still she’d had been experiencing an austere life.   Finally arriving at her new home in Japan, we geared up for Christmas – the first one for 3-year-old Nicki. When Christmas morning arrived, she was absolutely delighted to find the mandarin orange in the top of her stocking.  (I’ll ...

 Dear friends,  Well, we all got thru our Thanksgiving season and I'm guessing that now you're thinking about Christmas! Tony got our Christmas lights up a week early this year, strictly against tradition, but he claimed his authority as Patriarch. But rather than pontificate about Christmas just yet, I'm going to pass this little ditty along just in case you haven’t come across the story and might like to spread some 'Good News' around.  Please enjoy.    It’s the story of a candy maker in Indiana who wanted to make something that would help us remember Who Christmas is really about.  The result was a Christmas Candy Cane.  He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. It goes like this: He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolise the virgin birth and sinless nature of Jesus.  Hard candy to symbolise the solid rock, the foundation of the Church, and firmness of the promises of God. He t...