Alpaca Christmas

I found this fresh take on an old classic, in a previous December "Alpaca Magazine" issue and thought all of you might enjoy it :]

 Alpaca Christmas by Gay Moller

Twas the night before Christmas and out on the farm

The 'pacas were dozing, no cause for alarm.

Their stocking were hung on the side of the shed

And their two legged friends were all tucked up in bed.

They smiled as they cushed and chewed on their cud,

Remembering happily rolls in the mud.

They dreamed of lush pasture and pretty spring flowers

Of leaping and pronking and eating for hours.

When up in the sky there arose such a clatter,

They sprang to their feet to see what was the matter.

The tinkle to sleigh bells the sound of deep laughter

What could it be, was it them it was after?

The moon was full and away to the north

A small speck approached; the sound billowing forth.

As it grew nearere, they saw 'twas a sleigh

Pulled by eight tiny 'pacas and loaded with hay.

With a little old driver, so lively and round

It was he who was laughing, a curious sound,

More rapid then reindeer these 'pacas they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.

"Now Suzy! Now, Sally! Now Murty, and Locky!

On, Becky! On Geordie! On, Dougal and Rocky!

To the top of the paddock! To the top of the wall!

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the housetop the 'pacas they flew,

With the sleigh full of hay, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, they heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

The 'pacas all stared, how could THOSE 'pacas fly?

And where did they come from, up there in the sky?

The hay looked quite luscious, but was it for them?

Or was some for the goat, and some for the hens?

Would all get a share or had some misbehaved?

It must be okay, Santa smiled, and then as he waved.....

He slid from the roof landing right at their feet

He spread out the hay and told them to eat.

You've been excellent 'pacas, he said with a smile

And say himself down for a rest on the stile.

You've brought lots of smiles to the two-legged team

Who feed and caress you and keep your yards clean

You've taunted and teased and kept them on their toeses

You've waggled your ears and you've whiffled your noses

You've come when they've called and sometimes you've not,

You've shivered to worry them, groaned when to hot,

You've delivered your cria when it's suited you,

You've oft made them anxious and oft made them stew.

You've brought magic and peace to their boring routines.

You've coaxed and cajoled them and given them beans.

You've done all the things that alpacas should do,

And I'm here to thank you for just being you.

He rose then and stretched, said he must carry on

His team was now rested, his twinkly eyes shown,

As he smiled at the 'pacas and wished them adieu.

And he climbed to the roof while admiring the view.....

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But they heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas To All,

And To ALL A Good- Night!"

The Refining Process

Last Wednesday we had our church Bible Study and one of the topics that came up had to do with the "refining process" in our lives.  Our Pastor explained the similarities between the process of gold being refined and Christians being refined....

The Gold Refining Process:

In the old days, when the gold needed to be separated from the impurities, they would put the gold into a pot filled with water and then would bring the water to a boil.  As it would boil the "dross" or impurities would rise to the surface of the pot.  The dross would be spooned away and they would continue the process of boiling the water and spooning the impurities that floated to the top until you could see your reflection in the water with no blemish.

The Christians Refining Process:

God creates a new creature when we accept His gift of salvation and repent of our sins.  However we are still human and are full of "impurities."  God brings trials and lessons into our lives that cause boiling pressure in our lives, but if we see the boiling time as part of God's plan and part of the refining process, then bit by bit the impurities will be taken away.  Our ultimate goal is to be like Christ.  To be so like Him that when people look at us, they see a reflection of Him.

I loved the allegory found in the pictures above.  We will never be perfect and while we are on earth people will never see a perfect reflection of Christ in us.  However, everyday is to be spent trying to become more and more like Jesus.  Those times where we seem to be at the end of our rope are usually the times where we learn incredible lessons such as leaning on Him rather than on ourselves.  Those boiling times can be so painful spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally, but when we look back on those times, we can see God's hand at work refining us and as we bring those impurities before His feet, He cleanses us so that we can reflect Him better.

Andre Rieu Concert!!!!!

Hello Everyone!

God is so good! About a month ago I saw an advertisment for an Andre Rieu Concert in our area. (Andre Rieu is a the director of the Johann Strauss Orchestra.)  I checked out the orchestra and Andre at his website (Click here to view it :]) and loved what I saw.  The website had videos of the music that they play and some of the different things they do and I fell in love with it :)  How could I not?  Beautiful, classical music, ladies in ball gowns, men in tuxs and musicians playing with such joy conducted by a laughing, talented director.  What is not to love?..... The prices were a bit high for me, so I hinted to my family that if someday, if it is in the Lord's plans that I court someone, that this type of activity would put me right over the top :]]

I sent an email to a friend letting her know about the website, knowing that she, like me, would love the videos....and that was the end of it.  Or so I thought :]

A few weeks after the email my friend recieved a phone call from a mutual friend that new we were interested in the concert......She had two tickets that were 50% off if we wanted them!!!!! 

What can I say?  We were so excited!! 

The tickets were bought and we planned for a wonderful evening!


All that to say, 'That night was one of the best nights of my life!'  The beauty, music, romance, grandeur, elegance, peace & joy took my breath away.  I don't think I stopped smiling the whole evening. 
Andre kept us laughing throughout the night and yet could bring us the next moment into such a mesmorized state as we listened to the music. 

Music is truly a wonderful gift God has given us!  As the music played I was filled with such intense happiness at being there and yet at the same time overwhelmed with the splendor!

The following pictures are from the concert.  I'm sorry the quality isn't better.  The lighting wasn't that great in there and our camera is not all that fancy ;)  I think the videos turned out the best but for some reason they are not loading onto blogger!  Hopefully you will be able to get a glimpse of what we saw!

Looking in from the entrance.  We sat on the floor on the right, second to last row.  You can't see them in this picture but there were bleachers surrounding the floor.

Looking at the stage from the bleachers on the left.

This picture came out the brightes of them all!

They played the "Snow Waltz" and as they played a blanket of feathers was released and covered the audience.  The next picture will show it better :] 

It was so beautiful!

I'm going to insert a youtube video since my personal videos are not loading. 

This video shows exactly what happened :) Except obviously it was in English and the "snow" was feathers.

I have a short clip of Stephanie Detry playing this piece on my camera but this video does the whole song.  This was definitely one of my favorites!

Of course they played several waltz's.  Andre Rieu is after all, the "King of Waltz's" and during the "Blue Danube Waltz" there were people all over the room waltzing!!  Some of my other favorites were the "Skater Waltz" and "Amazing Grace" with the bagpipes!

One of the peices of music included a shower of colored balloons that I caught a great picture of!

As I said above, 'That was one of the greatest nights I have ever had.'   I hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos!   You can see even more of them at the website I mentioned above.  I especially recommend watching the "Blue Danube"  it is lovely to watch!

When you think about it, isn't it amazing how God gave man a big enough imagination to figure out how to put onto paper, musical notes that would guide people on all different types of instruments, let alone create all the different instruments that we use in todays culture.

God is so good!!

A Guest Writer: "Saying Goodbye"

I recieved an email this morning from a friend of mine and he shared with me a poem he had written.  I loved it and he said I could post in on my blog, so here it is. 

It helps to read it slowly, it has so much meaning.  This young man has some wonderful talent that God has given and I can't wait to see where God leads him!

SAYING GOOD-BYE

To sadly say Good-by, a path we all must take.

A word we would not use, a word that makes us
ache.

When death upon us lies, is thought to last
forever
.
To people we love the most,a word that always
severs.

Jesus through His love for us ,a sacrifice He
made.

And for us , sinners, was lade into the grave.

Now if we trust in Jesus, a child of God may be.

To everyone who does believe, of heaven we will
see.

Because of what Christ did, Good-Byes can now
be sweet.

Good-Bye is now a parting word, until in glory
we meet.