Favorite Christmas Songs

So, my brother-in-law asked us at Thanksgiving to go around the table and tell everyone what our favorite Christmas song was. It was very hard to pick just one. Since then, I've been trying to remember all of those wonderful Christmas songs that I love to listen to but often get forgotten (I seem to hear the same songs over and over on the radio). As I pulled out my CDs for this Christmas season, I made a list of my favorites, including the ones that are not quite as well-known. So, here's my compilation so far (not necessarily in any order), some classical, traditional, hymns, carols, others contemporary/worship, mostly likely at least a few that you aren't familiar with...check out any that you aren't familiar with on www.youtube.com, maybe you'll find a new favorite:

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Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee (Ode to Joy)

O Holy Night

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Christmas Offering

Angels We Have Heard On High

Mary, Did you Know

Carol of the Bells

The Gift

When Love Came Down (Point of Grace)

O Come All Ye Faithful

Christmas Canon

Let There Be Light (Point of Grace)

Breath of Heaven

In the First Light

Little Town (Point of Grace)

For Unto Us

Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah

All is Well

Emmaneul (Chris Tomlin)

My Soul Magnifies the Lord (Chris Tomlin)

Joy to the World/Unspeakable Joy (Chris Tomlin)

Glory in the Highest (Chris Tomlin)

Light of the World (Chris Tomlin)

Winter Snow (Chris Tomlin)

Born That We May Have Life (Chris Tomlin)

Jesus, Born on this Day (Mariah Carey)

Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child (Mariah Carey)

What Child is This

Hope is Born Again (Jim Brickman/Point of Grace)

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Angels from the Realms of Glory

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

The First Noel

O Little Town of Bethlehem (especially verse 4)

Silent Night (especially verse 2 & 3)

I also enjoy singing all of the verses of each of the carols...the additional verses are some of my favorites.

Anyone with other favorites?

A few favorites are listed on the Play list below. (I can only get 9 on there at a time) Enjoy! (You can still listen while viewing other sites if you minimize the window and they will keep playing)

To the Cross

I heard this song for the first time last weekend at Chippewa Evangelical Free Church. It immediately became one of my current favorites...

Watch youtube video here

The Woodpecker

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

Thursday mornings are my day to sleep in and lay in bed later than normal. In the quietness as I was still in bed this morning, I heard a woodpecker (at least that's what it sounded like) somewhere outside our house and I began to think about how amazing God's creation is. I don't know a lot about woodpeckers and I didn't get up to try to see the woodpecker (I probably wouldn't have actually been able to find it because of so many trees around our house anyway). Instead, I just stayed still and listened to this amazing creature and thought how do they do that?

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Thank you, Lord, for directing my thoughts toward you in the stillness and quietness of this morning. Keep me from being too busy to "be still" and see your glory each new day. Click here to see YouTube video for "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band

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I did a search on woodpeckers and found this information...it's truly amazing when I stop to think about it...

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Members of the family Picidae have strong bills for drilling and drumming on trees and long sticky tongues for extracting food. Many of the foraging, breeding and signaling behaviors of woodpeckers involve drumming and hammering using the bill. In order to prevent brain damage from the rapid and repeated decelerations, woodpeckers have a number of adaptations to protect the brain. These include small brain size, the orientation of the brain within the skull (which maximises the area of contact between the brain and the skull) and the short duration of contact. The millisecond before contact with wood a thickened nictitans membrane closes, protecting the eye from flying debris. The nostrils are also protected; they are often slit-like and have special feathers to cover them. Territorial drumming occurs most frequently in spring. The series of drumlike rolls are produced by rapid pecking on the resonant trunks and branches of dead trees.

Woodpeckers, piculets and wrynecks all possess zygodactyl feet. Zygodactyl feet consist of four toes, the first and the fourth facing frontward and the second and third facing back. This foot arrangement is good for grasping the limbs and trunks of trees. Members of this family can walk vertically up a tree trunk, which is beneficial for activities such as foraging for food or nest excavation. In addition to the strong claws and feet woodpeckers have short strong legs, this is typical of birds that regularly forage on trunks. The tails of all woodpeckers except the piculets and wrynecks are stiffened, and when the bird perches on vertical surfaces, the tail and feet work together to support it.

The diet of woodpeckers consists mainly of insects and their grubs taken from living and dead trees, and other arthropods, along with fruit from live trees, nuts and sap both from live trees. Their role ecologically is thereby keeping trees healthy by keeping them from suffering mass infestations.The family is noted for its ability to acquire wood-boring grubs using their bills for hammering, but overall the family is characterised by its dietary flexibility, with many species being both highly omnivorous and opportunistic. The insect prey most commonly taken are insects found inside tree trunks, whether they are alive or rotten wood and in crevices in bark on trees. These include beetles and their grubs, ants, termites, spiders,and caterpillars. These may be obtained either by gleaning or more famously by excavating wood. Having hammered a hole into the wood the prey is excavated by a long barbed tongue. The ability to excavate allows woodpeckers to obtain tree sap, an important source of food for some species.

The Thankful Pumpkin

You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118: 28, 29

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Worship is not just about singing praises at church on Sunday mornings. It is giving God honor through "boughing low in reverance to Him"

...anytime, anywhere.

This is a little thing that Mike and I have done the last few years to try to focus on worshipping God in our home in the spirit of the fall season...

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Starting around this time of year, leading up to Thanksgiving we take little slips of paper and write down different things that we are thankful for. Then around Thanksgiving, we take them out one-by-one and read them out loud and pray together, thanking God for all the blessings that he has given us.

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Once I used fall-colored paper in a glass jar, another time we put the slips of paper in a "fall" decorated box. This year we are going to put them in this ceramic pumpkin that I have...so, it's our "thankful pumpkin."

Celebrating Life

4Saturday was my birthday. (We were in Pittsburgh for the weekend. I had a nice, relaxing day. Saturday afternoon we attended a wedding - Kris & Pete, friends from the Focus bible study in Pittsburgh. It was a fun time. And I got to do some swing dancing! Thanks, Steve & Amy for hosting us for the weekend.)

------- 4 And, yesterday was my 3 year "anniversary" (as my oncologist calls it) as a breast cancer survivor. So this weekend was kind of a celebration of life. I praise God for the gift of life that he has granted. And, I praise him for my hope of eternal life... Let the praises ring!!! Oh Lord my God in you i put my trust Oh Lord my God in you i put my hope Oh Lord my God in you i put my trust ohh yes I do Oh Lord my God in you i put my hope in you In you In you I find my peace In you In you I find my strength In you, I live and move and breath Let everything I say and do Be founded by my faith in you I lift up holy hands and sing let the praises ring Oh Lord my God to you I give my hands Oh Lord my God to you I give my feet Oh Lord my God to you I give my everything Take all I am Oh Lord my God to you I give my life Woah...Woah In you In you I find my peace In you In you I find my strength In you, I live and move and breath Let everything I say and do Be founded by my faith in you I lift up holy hands and sing let the praises ring.. Artist: Lincoln Brewster Listen here

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"Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live,

and in your name I will lift up my hands."

Psalm 63:3,4

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Lord, Give Us Clean Hands, Give Us Pure Hearts

Give Us Clean Hands Lyrics Artist: Chris Tomlin We bow our hearts We bend our knees Oh Spirit come make us humble We turn our eyes From evil things Oh Lord we cast down our idols So give us clean hands and give us pure hearts Let us not lift our souls to another Oh give us clean hands and give us pure hearts Let us not lift our souls to another Oh God let this be a generation that seeks Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob Oh God let us be a generation that seeks Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob Video: (listen to the song) http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=72db8f68a1bf8b46afd8 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_snhroF1Cw pure (from http://www.dictionary.reference.com/) –adjective, pur·er, pur·est. 1. free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; free from extraneous matter: pure gold; pure water. 2. unmodified by an admixture; simple or homogeneous. 3. of unmixed descent or ancestry: a pure breed of dog. 4. free from foreign or inappropriate elements: pure Attic Greek. 5. clear; free from blemishes: pure skin. 6. (of literary style) straightforward; unaffected. 8. without any discordant quality; clear and true: pure tones in music. 9. absolute; utter; sheer: to sing for pure joy. 10. being that and nothing else; mere: a pure accident. 11. clean, spotless, or unsullied: pure hands. 12. untainted with evil; innocent: pure in heart. 13. physically chaste; virgin. 14. ceremonially or ritually clean. 15. free of or without guilt; guiltless.