Prepare - A Chrstimas Countdown - Week Six

Week Six - Grocery Shopping Week - November 17-22

This week continues our shopping - but this time it is to the grocery store. Shopping is not on my favorite thing to do so I'll be glad when this task is complete.

I like to do my holiday grocery shopping the week or two before Thanksgiving to take advantage of the sales. One of the first posts I wrote was about buying turkey on sale. Since often there is a minimum amount that you need to buy to take advantage of the turkey sale, it is a good time to stockpile.

I'll try to stock up on baking supplies to take me into January - if my lists are complete. I'm sure I'll miss something and have to be back to the store, but at least I made an attempt.

Some of you have asked what kinds of Christmas cookies we will be baking. Well, nothing fancy. We tend to keep to the same old favorites!

Here is some links to favorite cookie recipes that I've shared in the past.

Molasses Cookies
Double Chocolate Cookies - I make these with Andes Mints for Christmas
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Monster Cookies
Peppernuts
Lemon Strawberry Swirls
Gingerbread Boys
Peanut Butter Critter
Graham Cracker House - not a cookie - but a fun child's project


Also, a friend shared with me a link for a set of nativity cookie cutters. This set has been in their family for many years and she was thrilled to find them still available since all her daughters want their own set for their home.  What a fun family tradition!

Preparation in Scripture

Our family is reading through Isaiah right now. It has been a perfect preparation for Christmas, especially when the children spot passages that they remember from The Messiah. The prophecies about Christ make encouraging reading.

 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.
 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
  And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40: 1-5)

 This passage about makes me cry. In a world with sorrow and warfare, wilderness and deserts, crooked and rough places - I long for the glory of the Lord to be revealed. And this passage gives a promise (from the mouth of the Lord, who cannot lie) that all of us shall see His glory.

And that is comfort for the bleakest of days.