December has its Christmas Tea’s and Brunches which I love being a part of, but for me December means one thing - FAMILY! As my family has all grown and now have families of their own, we have made December 26th “Family Day”. This is the day every single member of my family gets together at my sister Susan’s house. This is my absolute favorite day of the entire year! I won’t bore you with stories about people you have never met, but I will tell you this - when our nephews Everett, Mitch, Mike and Douglas (the ring leader), get together with their Uncle Donnie and their Dads, it is the greatest time you will ever have! Whether you know them or not, you will laugh so hard you can’t breathe. Your sides will ache, your voice will become hoarse and all you want is more! Why is that? Because laughter, in my opinion, is one of God’s greatest gifts! Laughing warms the heart, hearing others’ laugh puts a smile on the face and laughter heals a hurting heart!

I still remember the first time I laughed after my Dad and Mom Kathy were killed. It was the only time since I had received “the call” from the Embassy that my heart didn’t physically ache. It surprised me to find myself laughing. Of course, immediately the spirit of guilt tried to condemn me for laughing in the midst of mourning, but the Holy Spirit was right there to speak words of Truth to me; telling me it was the peace of God in me that enabled me to laugh! Do you see?  These are the times when we must recognize the Voice of God over the voice of the enemy and take every thought captive by saying, “NO! My God would never speak words of guilt or condemnation to me!” As Scripture tells us in II Corinthians 10:3-6, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every imagination that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

As much as I love December, I know for many of you this time of year can be difficult to get through. My parents absolutely loved Christmas and Donnie & I spent almost every Christmas with them in the last years of their lives. We made many wonderful memories that I still cherish and embrace every year. My prayer for you is that the Peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus and enable your fond memories of Christmases past to fill your heart with joy!

May the joy of the Lord strengthen you this Christmas to freely laugh out loud and put a contagious smile on your beautiful face! May you hold this wonderful verse in your heart always, but especially during the Christmas season.

   It is Christmas time at the Floyd’s, which means it is time to break out the oven mitts and start baking that Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread! Donnie thought it would be great for me to share with all of you our Christmas tradition in the “Me & My Donnie” section of the newsletter this month. And I must say that he loves this tradition as much as I do! (Hence, his idea to include it in the newsletter!)

Each year, we like – no, LOVE – to bake our famous (and secret) Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. So, early in December, we choose a morning to sit down with a cup of coffee and make the recipient list. Of course we include our friends, but also the neighbors who, throughout the year we only wave from the mailbox as they drive by. We also love to bless the mail lady, garbage man, pharmacists, Post Master (remember we live in a little country town) and the UPS man…I think you get the picture!

Then we make the grocery list!  This is the one time of year you can truly justify shopping at COSTCO for the giant bag of chocolate chips, sugar and flour!  However, Donnie feels any time of year is a good time to buy a giant bag of chocolate ANYTHING!!!  The next day we turn up the Christmas music and we bake and we bake and we bake, the whole day!  We then print a note card to attach to each loaf.  For our friends we tell them how much they mean to us and for those who serve us all year long we let them know how much we appreciate them!  Finally on the 3^rd day we put on our Christmas sweaters…and…well…okay I admit Donnie would NEVER where a Christmas sweater, but he does where a red sweater and after I beg long enough he puts on the Christmas socks I bought him and we start delivering!  It is such a wonderful feeling to give to those who you love and to those who serve you all year long!  Now that we have been in Texas for 7 years, we see our tradition has caught on, because the other day I ran in to one of our recipients and she said, “Oh Goody! It’s almost Pumpkin Bread Time!”  She has no idea she made my whole day…

Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate the greatest gift ever given, Jesus our Lord!  Who came not to be served, but to serve… So therefore I say, “Tis the season to give and to bless and to serve and may God richly bless as you do!