[Magdalen] Happy Christmas!

[Ginga Wilder]

Merry Christmas to each and all on the 3rd day of Christmas.

Wilders have had a low key Christmas.  After a wonderful 4 PM worship
service with 63 people attending, John and I headed to Charlotte to spend
Christmas Day with our sons and their families.  Jay and Annie hosted a
midday dinner.  Annie's mom and Jay's children, Zach, Katie, and Melanie
wee all there.  Robert, Christina, and baby Rory joined us. Eleven around
the table...the big girls made place cards for all of us.  Zach announced a
3.76 GPA for first semester at Syracuse.  And, Rory was adorable and never
stopped until she and her father crashed in a recliner in a room without a
television.  We watched Emmet Otter (a Wilder family tradition for going on
30 years); we also watched god-awful holiday movies: Christmas Vacation and
Christmas Story ( this one twice).  Whew!  A game of Rummikub interrupted
the second running of Christmas Story, but still whew!  Great visiting with
and among all of us.  A truly good day.  We drove home yesterday.

Our choir and music director, Dr. Valerie Bullock, challenged our choir
with a difficult piece sung as prelude. A ballet, a family illness, and an
torn Achelles tendon kept our three best voices (two bases and a soprano)
from worship.  The ten voices that were there did a terrific job with
"Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light" from "The Christmas Oratorio" by
Johann Sebastian Bach.  Lovely.

Three families from the old St. Paul's congregation worshipped with us on
Christmas Eve.  We know one couple will transfer to Good Shepherd.
Another, a family with little children, probably won't.  And, another
couple are interested, especially since the fellow is a tenor and was very
interested in our choir.  Makes me smile, especially since I cannot sing
any note on key, that our music program is among the very best evangelical
tools that Good Shepherd has.  Thank you, God.

And, tomorrow, we will read my favorite gospel, John 1.1-18.  John 1.5
tells a truth about my live.  Again, thank you God.

Blessings and love,
Ginga Wilder

On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 1:11 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

>
>  Thanks again for the gift
>>
>
> You are most welcome! I did answer earlier -- with a bit more explanation
> on the coal <g>. I posted that card and the previous year's coal card on
> Facebook and ended up with hundreds of "Likes" FWIW.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim
>
>