2010 Family Christmas Letter

Dearest Family and Friends,
The Barrett Family wishes you a holy Advent, a joyous Christmas, and a blessed New Year in our Lord Christ! May His Spirit, comfort, and abounding love fill your hearts and homes this season and always!

2010 has not been the easiest of years for our family. Like you, we have experienced highs and lows, but throughout it all, God's goodness has been very evident, and for His blessings we are very thankful indeed—especially for being able to live in this wonderful small town amongst winter-tinged mountains.

We celebrated the 11th birthday of our youngest, Benjamin, earlier this month with a day at Sea World, thanks to season passes from my parents. Benjamin is in 5th grade this year as we continue to school the boys at home. He is taking classes in California History, PE, and Lego Engineering at our co-op Class Days and is studying German for a second year. Benjamin is very artistic, and his antics around the house keep us constantly laughing—lately he has taken to imitating a Hobbit...all day, every day. He is quite the character.

In 8th grade this year, Jonathan turned 13 in June, and he continues to excel in his musical studies. He is in his third year of guitar lessons with the Free Teen Guitar Class of Alpine Anglican Church, and he started piano lessons again this fall with Teri Carpentier after two years of earlier study. Jonathan played guitar in the Pine Valley Days Parade in July and also performed at our town's Christmas play earlier this month. He is also taking courses in General Science, chess, and PE at Class Day, and he has joined his older brother in learning algebra from “Auntie Jo,” my dear friend from college, Johanna. He's also decided to study Japanese this year which he really enjoys. Jonathan is definitely our “cool kid.”

Timothy will be 16 in March and is in 10th grade. He continues to enjoy learning art techniques and is taking a class in Fine Arts as well as a double-period Biology Lab at Class Day in addition to studying German at home. Timothy and Jonathan have joined forces in creating their own yardwork business around Pine Valley, and they've enjoyed the added responsibility and income. Timothy has also become very much involved in our town's community garden, and he and Benjamin have spent many hours helping some older residents with gardening duties. It's been wonderful for all three of the boys to become more involved in the Pine Valley community.

Now 18 and in her first year of college at Point Loma Nazarene University, Elizabeth graduated from Heritage Christian School (our homeschool group) in June. We enjoyed throwing her a 1950s “Sock-Hop” graduation party to celebrate her accomplishment. Elizabeth is a literature major in my former department at PLNU. Living in the dorms during the week and coming home most weekends, she is thoroughly enjoying college life. (I think she misses Dash our dachshund more than us!) She loves her dorm-mates dearly, and her RA is really wonderful. Elizabeth is completing her first semester this month, studying German with my former professor, plus classes in Biology, Theater History, Tennis, and Writing. Elizabeth is hoping to get an on-campus job next semester after working most of this year at the Pine Valley Bible Conference Center.

I've been busy this year, as always. In addition to teaching the three boys at home, I'm teaching Intermediate and Advanced Writing courses to high school students at Class Day, plus teaching various online classes in research essays, grammar, poetry, story writing, and Shakespeare at BraveWriter.com. In addition, I am helping to edit a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer revised by Father Acker at Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity where the kids and I continue to worship on Friday mornings and Holy Days. Keith and I have also joined the Scripture Reading Team at Lake Murray Community Church in La Mesa which we have attended for over 17 years. I still help out various churches and missionary organizations with proofreading and editing in addition to writing poetry and even a little fiction now and again. In August I also celebrated my 4th anniversary of blogging at MeditativeMeanderings.

Keith has been working very hard this year, attempting to make ends meet. He has been doing a lot of handyman work for many clients, but especially my parents this year as he helped to design and install an elevator in their Pacific Beach home as well as renovate their mountain cabin atop Mount Laguna. He continues to work in the office with his dad on some remodels and other projects as well as designing two small custom homes—doubling last year's workload. Keith is planning a new stained glass window, a peacock this time, and may have a stained glass commission coming in the spring from clients who have seen his two windows in the Ademas' home. Keith continues as Head Chef in our household, often drafting the kids into the kitchen as his Sous-Chefs.

Our family wishes you a joyous and healthy 2011 as we all go forth in the love and grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior! Come let us adore Him!

With love and prayers,
The Barrett Family
Keith, Susanne, Elizabeth, Timothy, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Dash, too!

Wishing you all blessed Holy Days,

A Christmas Poem

Image Attribution

The High Calling has posted a call for Christmas Verse. I've written and re-written and re-re-written this poem, so I hope it works. Just today I chopped off the opening third of the poem, and I think it's more powerful as a result. Let me know what you think....

By the way, I'll be reading my poem "abiding" this Sunday at Lake Murray Community Church as part of the church-wide Christmas program. Wish me luck...and a clear, unhurried reading voice.

rocking history
I want the earth to halt--
to stop its dizzying rotation,
just for the essential moment

so that I can truly see,
can wholly grasp
the magnitude of this Gift we celebrate:

a squalling infant laid
into a rude feeding trough
by a young woman
(a girl really)

pale with her pain and exhaustion,
amongst sheep and cattle whose
stench rises warm and wet
into star-strewn night.

this moment seems a simple tableau,
a most common event,
as she rocks history into the world.

then the earth may regain its motion
as long as this image remains:
salvation searing slow and soul-deep.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

So this simple image, almost a cliche, rocked the world. It's so world-rocking...so world-rocking.

Living in a God-rocked world with you,

Gratitude Is Never Late....

"Mount Laguna Sunset" taken by Keith Barrett, December 2010

...even if I am.

So as the bustle of Christmas preparations swirl around us, may we find those brief moments of quiet, the solace of silence, to gather our thoughts, to number our many blessings.

Thus I continue on the journey to One Thousand Gifts with the Gratitude Community at A Holy Experience, sharing my thanks with you and my praise as an encouragement--to you and to myself, for I crave encouragement right now with Christmas upon us and prayers for the provision to pay late bills and purchase a small gift for each of the boys, plus a few things for their stockings. So I plan to read through many other thanks of the Gratitude Community so that my own heart, a wee bit discouraged right now, can be encouraged--given the courage I need--and that I may walk in confidence ("con" is Latin for "with; "fide" is Latin for "faith") so I pray to "walk with faith" through these last days of Advent, and I pray to "walk with faith" and with joy, for the True Gift is free to us, for "we were bought for a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20).

So this Third Week in Advent, I give thanks to our loving, faithful God for:

451. ...His grace and faithfulness, despite my fears and faithlessness

452. ...Indian-summer weather in December, warm with sunshine seeping deep into stiffened joints

453. ...the glory of His gorgeous sunsets, and my husband's photographic skill in capturing their inexpressible beauty

454. ...the absence of homeschooling for four weeks, a vacation very much needed, a time of rest entirely necessary to refuel for work in January

455. ...the blessings and help of family when our finances are so tight

456. ...the losing of ten pounds over the last six weeks or so--just 50 more to go, the gain a result of steroid medication

457. ...Keith's 20-pound weight loss, a side-effect of a special diet to heal infection

458. ...the joy of having Elizabeth home for three weeks starting Friday

459. ...the carols of Advent and Christmas which always warm heart and soul

460. ...the simple task of addressing Christmas letters, praying for each family as I write, dipping the shiny brass nib into evergreen-hued ink

May we be abrim with gratitude as we walk these final days of Advent in anticipation of the celebration of Christ's Incarnation, and as we also await His Second Coming in glorious majesty--far more glorious than we can ever imagine....

Wishing you and yours a blessed Adventide and Christmas,

Third Sunday in Advent

Virtual Advent Wreaths by Dawn by Design

This day marks the Third Sunday in Advent, when the rose candle is lit. At Lake Murray, someone lit the third purple candle instead of the rose candle, and it took all my resolve to not sneak up to the front and light the correct candle during our "greeting time." (Okay, okay, so I obsess over Advent!)

But lighting the rose candle reminds us that joy is indeed coming...joy is on its way. And when we're this deeply into Advent, I need the reminder of the joy that is indeed coming...and coming soon.

The Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent:

O LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

After church today we met with the Scripture Reading Team, and Keith and I both practiced our passages that we'll be reading in January during the church services. My passage is Genesis 1--which is definitely a very long passage, and Keith's is Acts 16:25-34. Fortunately, I am reading mine on the day after the New Year when we have only one church service planned, so I only have to read it once; Keith will be reading a week later.

So as we celebrate this Third Week in Advent, we also remember these wise words of this Christian saint who suffered much for the Gospel of Christ:

"A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door to freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent."
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

May we all seek His face during this Advent Season, recognizing that in Him is our only hope of real joy, of true peace.

Wishing you a blessed Third Week of Advent,

Holidays or Holy Days?

Benjamin decorating the tree

'Tis the season...of busyness.

And I have accomplished little.

The house is decorated, thanks to a creative daughter and three goofy boys whom she dragged off the X-Box to help her from time to time while I lay on the sofa, dizzily watching them flit about, feverish chills disrupting my attempts at rest.

I have purchased one gift for my mother. That's it.

I have so many needs pulling at my time. At least school is mostly over for the boys, and I have this week to write and copy our annual Christmas missive, to take our family photo, to purchase gifts, to start preparing the house for our annual Christmas Eve celebration with Keith's side of the family. We're only buying for our own kids this year, and a little something for my parents. With finances as they are, we're keeping the kids at $20-25 apiece, plus their stockings.

But my real need this Christmas is to attend church, either Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning, something we usually don't do because of family celebrations on both days. I want more than anything else (yes, even more than the Kindle the whole family is pitching in to get for me) to worship the King on His birthday, to sing carols with a large group of worshippers, to watch candles glimmer and celebrate this Holy Day the way He should be celebrated.

The other things--the gifts, the food, the gatherings--are nothing next to our need for Him. I pray that my focus, our family's focus, for the remainder of Advent and through the Twelve Days following Christmas will be upon the One Who came, the One Who is coming again.

And I pray for a Holy Advent--for myself, for those I love, for those I know, and for those I don't know. I pray for true "Holy Days"--days "set apart" for Him--to pray to, to sing to, to focus on, to meditate upon, to celebrate fully Him Who is Love.

As Christina Rossetti writes in her beautiful Christmas carol "Love Came Down at Christmas":

Love Came Down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

So, no, I have little accomplished in the way of Christmas preparations, yet I pray that as I do these tasks, He will be glimmering in my heart and mind, reminding me that these things, although enjoyable and fun, are not the heart of these Holydays.

He is.

"Love was born at Christmas"...
all thanks, praise, and glory be to God.

Wishing you and yours a holy Advent,

After a Week of Thanks, Gratitude Continues

Our home fires burning....

It's been a crazy-busy week, so I have been rather scarce here. Monday was a grading day and a school day with hardly a chance to catch a breath, especially after being sick for the previous four days. Tuesday was B's birthday which we spent away from home, and today was another busy day of preparing for our co-op Class Day classes tomorrow.

But I missed posting my additions to the Gratitude Community on my path to One Thousand Gifts. So, a couple of days late, I add these thanks overflowing:

441. ...our youngest's 11th birthday was yesterday, a lovely day of celebration at Sea World with our family, my parents, a quick trip to the college to see our eldest so she could wish him "Happy Birthday" in person--our youngest is our hilarious one, the one who carries laughter constant in his pocket

442. ...for our middle son's piano as each morning wakes abrim with beautiful music and "Amazing Grace"

443. ...for the quiet reminder of the nativity set on our mantel, whispering what is truly important this season: the birth of a Saviour

444. ...for the days spent with our daughter during our long Thanksgiving break, and for her touch everywhere I look in this house decorated for the Holy Days of Advent and Christmas

445. ...for the thirty poems written this past month--some good, some not so good and for the flow of pen on paper, untangling words from mind into sonorous silence.

446. ...for the poets and writers I've "met" along the journey of writing these thirty poems and also at She Writes. I hope to continue learning from them all

447. ...for an almost-full journal, one that will be filled before this year closes in a few weeks

448. ...for Advent music, especially "O Come Emmanuel"

449. ...for the beautiful Advent calendar, sewn nine years ago by Keith's sister and her daughters, gracing our wall, each handsewn pocket stuffed with Word

450. ...for the grace in gathering my not-so-little chicks together each evening around lit Advent candles to read and pray His Word as we await His coming again

So as we try to keep the Holy Days under some sort of control, with candles flickering and music playing softly in the background, may we remember for WHOM we await this Advent season.

With thanks this Advent season,

Second Sunday in Advent

Advent Wreath Blog Buttons by Dawn by Design--go get yours!

My favorite Collect for the entire Church Year is the one prayed on The Second Sunday in Advent and for the week following. I use it for my e-mail signature during all of Advent, and many Anglican Churches use it year-round to remind the congregations of the importance of God's Word to all Christians:

From the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

I missed church today as I've been stuck at home since Thursday with a nasty cold/virus of some sort: fever, dizziness, sore throat, runny nose, etc. I've been downing zinc lozenges which keep me from going into a full-blown cold at least. Yesterday I had to miss our church's annual Christmas Tea which I was really looking forward to, especially since I was bringing our Rector's wife and our Beadle's wife from the Anglican Church I attend on Fridays. But they didn't want to attend without me--160 women are a lot of ladies to deal with when one doesn't know any of them. I was looking forward to the singing, the fellowship with many women who return each year even when they no longer attend our church, the lovely tea and delicious food, and the opportunity to welcome the season. But I was able to spend much more time with our daughter, home from college for the weekend, than if I had attended the tea, so that was a true blessing in staying home.

But we will light our own family Advent candles tonight--lighting the one from last week plus a fresh purple one for this week. We have been reading through Bible verses for Advent from an old (and seemingly unavailable) Advent page from Focus on the Family, plus the Vesper Prayers from Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Winter which contains a whole section on Advent.

And last Advent I spent some time copying some Advent quotations into my Quotation Journal, one of which I share with you today to mark and celebrate this Second Sunday in Advent:

"It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope."
--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI

So may we all open our hearts and our minds to the beauty and truth of God's holy Word this Second Sunday in Advent...and always.

Wishing you a blessed Advent,

Saturday Evening Blog Post for November

Each month we post our best/favorite post of the previous month as part of the Saturday Evening Blog Post at ElizabethEsther.com.

As my regular readers now, I embarked on a poetic journey in November, writing 30 poems in 30 days as part of the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge through The Writer's Digest website. I wrote lots of other items, too, but one poem received the greatest number of comments I have received in over four years of blogging. I also sahred it with my little writing group in our small town, and they liked it as well, one member stating that it's the best poem I have written since we started the group five years ago.

And it's this poem I have selected to share with you.

"Do You Remember": November PAD Poem for Day 8

Wishing you all a happy Saturday Evening,

Poem Posted...

The poem below, "stooping in love," is featured on Tweetspeak Poetry today: Ghosts This Time of Year.

So happy--even if it is only as a participant.

Still writing,

A Noel Ghost

Photo Attribution

David Wheeler has challenged us to write a Noel Ghosts poem. I've pondered this challenge until today, the deadline for posting. I'm not extremely happy with this poem, especially compared to L.L. Barkat's beautiful trio of Noel Ghosts poems, especially the Ghost of Christmas Future she posted today--a lovely and complex sestina.

And my sincere apologies to those of you who are not poetry fans and who thought you might get a bit of a poetry break now that the Nov PAD Poetry Challenge is over....

stooping to love
a mere glimmer in the darkness
illumined by flickers of fading embers
in the dimly firelit room--

translucent, she steps tentatively
from the white lights of their fragrant evergreen,
a shade, a promise, a faerie, an angel of light--

silently she bridges each bedroom door,
brooding over each sleeping visage awash with dream,
bestowing upon each an angelic kiss of blessing,

each cheek no longer chubby with childhood
but thinned, lanky, with awkward teenage years,
with the promise of adulthood coming all-too-soon.

and she sighs, grieving just a little
for these once-babies, once-toddlers,
once comforted so sweetly in her faerie arms.

soundlessly closing the final door,
her hand glowing through the golden knob,
fading, she slips away...until the next Christmas Eve--

a motherly spirit, stooping to love
on this wintry night when, long ago,
Love was born infant, squalling into the night,
comforted in the arms of a poor, unwed mother.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

May your Advent and Christmas season be both merry and mystical, with the faerie brush of angel's wing and fragrance of Christmas Love glimmering along the edges....

Wishing you all a blessed Advent as we await Him who is Love,