Merry Christmas 2023 : Peace

Peace: Doesn't it seem elusive? And yet this time of year we talk about it all the time. 

-The Prince of Peace

-World Peace

-Inner Peace

-Find your own Peace

-A Peace of Pie...ha, I'm kidding

We attended two Christmas Eve services because I love our home church but also wanted to attend with Emma and Joe at their home church, Revival. Their pastor spoke about peace (Shalom). He wrote it out in Hebrew and talked about each symbol which gave such a clear view of what true peace is.

Reading from right to left the symbols are

shin - destroy

lamed - authority

vav - attached

mem - chaos

"destroy the authority attached to chaos"

Oh I love this! Isn't that beautiful? The Prince of Peace is one who came to destroy the authority attached to chaos. The Prince of Darkness causes all chaos and Jesus has overcome the evil one. We can find our peace rooted in Jesus. When googling "peace" I get words like "quiet, tranquility, serenity, ease". To be honest my life does not look like those words but in the midst of my loud, difficult, jumbled life I can find peace in Jesus. I am choosing peace. 

 

passing the light is my

favorite Christmas tradition

My Church 

This peanut brings so much joy!

Christmas Eve services with the Marvins

Christmas Eve Eve

After a day of eating, gifts and games we went for a walk in Aksarben to look at lights and ultimately get cupcakes at Jones Bros, which was probably Joe's plan all along. As you can see, Chris is in shorts. It wasn't that nice, he is just crazy. That said, it was a very nice day for late December in Nebraska.

Poor Papa spent Christmas in the hospital

But he enjoyed teasing Joe that he had a much larger room

Finding the silver lining where you can

After 10 days at Methodist hospital Papa is headed home today. There will be some changes with food and exercise and maybe medical treatment but we are so thankful for God protection. 

cookie decorating

Show choir "family" christmas

They made me judge their gingerbread houses. In true show choir fashion we had a drum roll then 2nd runner up, 1st runner up and champion. Ha! These kids are so funny!

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to celebrating with the extended Raabe family in January. We haven’t seen my mom over Christmas in more than 7 years since she always chooses to be in Texas with Larry. Seriously, sunshine and warm weather doesn’t sound bad in December. We were supposed to see mom in Small town Kansas on December 26th until Mother Nature changed our plans with 100% snow packed highways. 

”For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.“

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 

Headed for the Mission Field

We just got home from an 11pm drop off…our girl and 45 others headed to KC and then across the ocean. This is Liv’s first mission trip. Prayers are appreciated for safety, health, rest, cooler temps, peace and for the Holy Spirit to move this week. 

More info to come…

Challenge

Most people are a little more on the ball with their word of the year or new year resolutions, not me. I guess I'm already feeling the challenges of 2023.

This is my word, please do not confuse the word challenge with bad. I don't think I will have a bad year but I think there are some challenges that I am going to face which will be profound. Here I am saying, "I recognize it and Let's do this!"

Be strong and bold; have not fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

Deuteronomy 31:6,8

 

Christmas 2022 Photo Dump

Olivia had a solo at the school Christmas concert

MW Christmas Tradition

MWHS choir alumni are invited up to the stage to sing  “Psallite” with all 3 choirs. That’s about 280 voices. It’s breath taking. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions! Emma went up this year, surprised how well she remembered the song. 

As always, Nana is there to support

The 12 days of Christmas at the office proved to be a lot

A lot of what you ask… a lot of everything!

Here we are on the hot chocolate bar day in our ugly…ur um I mean festive sweaters. 😉

Candle Light Tradition

Christmas Eve services at Christ Community Church ends with singing Silent Night by candle light. Here’s another Christmas tradition I LOVE! 

My challenge each day is to be a light to a dark world. Jesus came so there would be light in a place filled with darkness, sadness, pain and sin. A light lead the wisemen to Jesus all those years ago. May we be vessels of light that attract people to Jesus also. 

Raabe Tradition

I am so thankful to have a family who gathers.

We had good food, laughter, gingerbread house decorating, games and a few gifts. While my kids have always wanted cousins they are fortunate to be the only grandkids/nieces on Christmas Day because they still ALL gets gifts.

These are the hats papa gives

Christmas at the CSF house

Christmas morning Tradition

Breakfast and gifts with just the 6 of us 

And Molly too of course

Gingerbread House Tradition

This one goes back to when we would take the girls home to Smith Center to see my parents. Mom and Dad’s house didn’t have much for my kids to do so we took projects like tie blankets and gingerbread houses. The houses became a favorite with my creative dad. Year after year dad helped us design as masterpiece. Oh dad, how I miss you!!

Chris and Stephen team up to make a chaotic masterpiece including a port-a-potty and fire pit

Holly and Reagan design together

Nana and Emma design beautiful little gingerbread house that would take 1st place of there was a competition 

Angie and Joe built a home for the Grinch or the Hulk, someone green anyway. 

Olivia and I didn’t get a picture taken since I’m always the photographer. Our house was decked out in pastels and ginger. 

1. Ang/Joe

2. Mel/Liv

3. Nana/Em

4. Chris/Stephen

5. Holly/Regs

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭7‬:‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 

Penn State Tackle Ended Her Season

She made it to the second to the last game of the season with only 4 minutes of a 90 minute contest left on the clock. The Huskers were leading a very good Penn State team when Reagan had a breakaway. The frustrated (Canadian) Nittany Lion, just as competitive as our #7, was determined to stop Reagan...she did. The tackle came in exceptionally hard as Reagan was striking the ball. Her foot stopped abruptly while her knee continued on resulting in a torn MCL. Devastating yes, but it could have and should have been so much worse. Watch the video below

(sound on)

I am so thankful for NWSL's KC Current player and ex-Husker Jaycie Johnson

Due to another knee injury for Jaycie, she was at our last home game. As the team was celebrating a HUGE win, this previous Husker sat on the field with my girl to comfort and encourage her. I hugged Regs and prayed with her but Jaycie knew all the right things to say as a player to a player.

Teammates (Riss & Sydney pictured) are the best!

That night we left Reagan in the good hands of her roommates. I offered to spend the night not knowing what her physical or mental pain would be that night. My girl is strong, she told me I could go home and come back in the morning for the MRI. As I struggled to fall asleep I prayed for God to be with Reags and give her peace. 

This view makes this mama's heart hurt

Twelve hours later we were at the stadium getting an MRI of her right knee (same one she tore up 5 years ago). What completely surprised me was Reagan's state of mind. She was in good spirits and confident she had not torn her ACL. This kid had the peace that passes all understanding. Where was my faith? That is exactly what I had prayed for and God delivered! Dr Claire, the university surgeon called about 5 hours later. Reagan was right, just the MCL was injured and no surgery was required but her season was over. Recovery is 2 months.

Again, we know God uses all things for good. Our favorite Husker spent the rest of the season leading her team from the sidelines and preparing for a great comeback. She has 3 weeks of rehab under her belt and has already run a few times. She'll be back before we know it, stronger than ever. I look forward to watching him work in and through Reagan. God Is Good!

 

Same game but before the injury. She really is an amazing soccer player!! 

What I Learned Calling 37 local High Schools

I replied to a request from Olivia's HS youth pastor. Who wouldn't offer to make a few phone calls? We belong to a church of several thousand people, of course there will multiple people offer to help. RIGHT??? To be honest, I didn't even entertain the thought I would be THE ONLY volunteer.

Well, I was!

Omaha isn't that big. How many high schools could we really have? We have 37. Ok, so that won't take too long to make 37 phone calls, right? This week I called all the high schools to obtain permission to use their school logo and request a vector file of that logo. This is all about helping kids find other students from their school at this event. That's it, nothing more.

I did what any rational person would do...I started with a spreadsheet. I love spreadsheets! They make me happy. They are orderly. It's a tidy list with space to make notes, check off items, highlight items and easily editable. Spreadsheets are my friend! :)

So here's the deal. You have to...

- look up the number and call each school

- look up the AD (activities director) and their email

- hopefully talk to the AD but probably leave a voice mail or message with the administrative assistant

- send an email to the AD (usually the AD, maybe the comm team or administration office)

- wait for a response

- download the file, half of them are not the format I asked for but I will take them anyway

- contact the church comm team. "what do I do with these vector files?"

- realize I use to have Dropbox and now how do I find that username and password

- upload to Dropbox

- figure out how to use dropbox

- keep track who I called and emailed, who gave permission, who sent the file

This took exceptionally longer than I anticipated. As of tonight, I still have 8 more schools to contact. Of the 28 schools I have reached, only 17 have sent files. 

These high schools are all so different. 

SIZE: The big public schools are about 2500 students. The small public schools are about 700-800. And the parochial schools range from class A 2500 students down to class C 300 students. 

AUTHORITY: Some secretaries have the authority to send what I need. Some ADs have the authority. And then some of the schools I had to speak with someone at the district office. Some acted like they had no idea where to even find a file of the school logo while others offered 3 different versions. 

WEBSITES: And then there's the websites. Holy Buckets! Some schools have a horrific web presence. Finding information on staff was like pulling teeth while others I could simply google school name and athletic director and everything I ever needed was right in there in black and white.

PERMISSION: Almost every person I have spoken to has been super helpful and excited that our church is doing a citywide gathering for youth. Only Bell East, so far, was concerned about the unintended endorsement they would be giving by allowing us to use their logo. Funny thing is the other school in that district, Bell West, had no problem giving us permission. And our largest district in town, Omaha Public Schools just doesn't have the time to respond to me. 

This has been interesting, kind of fun but much more involved than I expected. 

One more side note: several ADs asked me if I was related to Chris Raabe. Gosh, my husband is famous. 

(a post that is of very little significance to anyone but what I have been up to this week)

Merry Christmas 2021

I do love Christmas cards and if I could afford it I would send them to about 200 people but my sweet husband says “no!” I use to keep a very accurate spreadsheet of people we have sent cards TO and people we have received cards FROM. After not getting a Christmas card from someone for 2 years they were removed from the list. I know that doesn’t seem to be a very cheerful Christmas attitude but it does keep the list reasonable. I’ll admit, there are people on that list who never send cards…some of my dearest friends. So my plan doesn’t always work. 

It’s Christmas and I love all things Christmas! 

Decorations

I went a little more simplistic on our decorations both inside and out this year. I’m telling you, a wedding, as fun as it was, kind of sucks a lot of energy out of you for several months. So simple yes but I still put up 3 Christmas trees and I love each one! 

1. Family tree: has all the kids and family ornaments, ribbon and white lights. 
2. My “pretty tree” as the kids use to call it. This year it’s red black and white with white lights. 
3. The basement tree: no ornaments but a bunch of lights and big beautiful ribbons. 

Silly stuff

At work I did a couple tally board questions for each person who walked through the door. I even asked the MailLady and UPS guy. These are just fun conversation starters, we laughed a lot and helped people get in the Christmas spirit. 

1. When can Christmas music be played 

2. What is your favorite Christmas movie

Christmas Vacation was the winner 

Gifts

I love gifts, both giving and receiving. I have friends who know just the right gift to give, that’s a real art form. It takes listening and then remembering what others say. I want to be the best gift giver but I don’t live up to my own expectations. 

Then there’s wrapping the gifts. I love that too!! I wish I could make a living out of wrapping gifts and making gift baskets. It brings me so much joy! 

Jesus

Yep He is my favorite part of Christmas! I love the Bible stories about Joseph, Mary and Jesus. And have you seen the super cute video put on my Southland Christian Church? It’s been around for a while but I can watch this multiple times every year! 

We always attend Christmas Eve service. This year we went to Emma and Joe’s church. Great service in a smaller venue with LOTS of kids and a message of why we celebrate Christmas. It’s all about CHRIST! Do you find it can be hard to keep the important things important? The commercialism, the all pathways lead to peace, the elf on the shelf (praise Jesus I never had that creepy thing), the greed, the preparations, the darkness…all these things distract us from the message of salvation through a baby born to teenagers. 

Chris even got picked (actually handpicked) to play a game on stage. I think he muttered something about “payback” to Joe as he made his way up to the stage. 

Gingerbread Houses

This tradition began many years ago when we tried to find fun things for our kids to do when we went home to my parents’ house. Dad was always very creative so this was right up his alley! Now that dad is gone and even the last few years when we couldn’t see him, we have kept up the frosting and sprinkles fun. This year we broke up into 4 teams. I think our houses turned out pretty great! It’s too bad that mom isn’t able to join us. 

Papa & Joe

Chris & Melanie

Emma & Olivia

Nana & Reagan

I just think this is funny and I hope someday I don’t even remember what this is referring to

F A M I L Y

This is another favorite part of Christmas, time with family. I don’t care when or where as long as we are together. 

Christmas can be a beautiful time for people but it can also bubble up pain. It’s my sincere hope that someone close to you or maybe something I said today brings the true message of Christmas to you. May you find peace in His love for you. He sees you and He loves you!

I will be praying for you. 

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men  Luke 2:14