Celebrate Today- ceremonies and celebrations to make your days count

When I knew that Anna had the day off from school for Veteran's Day and that she was planning a hike with a couple of friends as a pre-birthday celebration, I had a crazy brainstorm to hike to the destination with festive decor and a birthday lunch to surprise her. I reached out to her friends and let them in on the secret, and Jason was game to help pull it off too.  Anna drove with her friends Sarah and Claire to Ira Spring Trail to Mason Lake, and unbeknownst to her, Jason and I were about 20 minutes ahead of her on the road to hit the trail. When we left the house that morning, we had told her that we were going on a trail run so that she did not suspect anything. We even swapped cars with our friend Bill for the day so that she would not see our car in the parking lot at the trail head to cover our tracks. We made our way to the lake with two full backpacks to set up shop with little time to spare as they were faster hiking up than we were with our heavy loads, but we found a ...

CREATION: RESURRECTION AND HOPE OF NEW LIFE EASTER EASTER CROSS 2020 April 15, 2020 by  Emily Huff , including photos, used with permission. In light of church gatherings not happening for Easter, our family wanted to do something to help the neighborhood celebrate and mark Easter together in a special way. We sent out email invitations to neighbors to let them know we would be  flowering a cross  outside our home on Easter Sunday, and we invited them to pick up some flowers from a store when they were out grabbing groceries or to pick some from their gardens to bring to add to the cross to celebrate that He is risen indeed!  My parents had done this for years at their church in Nashville, and we felt that this was the year to make one for Seattle.  Directions from my dad sent to us to make our Easter cross  The making of our Easter cross over Palm Sunday weekend  It was indeed a spectacular and...

In light of church gatherings not happening for Easter this year,  I wanted to do something to help the neighborhood celebrate and mark Easter together in a special way.  I thought back to one of the most beautiful things my parents have helped pull off for many years at Christ Community Church in Franklin of  flowering the cross  on Easter so I emailed Dad for directions and he sketched out a quick drawing a couple of weeks ago.  Jason was up for the project, and he and Anna worked with the saw this afternoon to pull this together!  We are so excited to see this cross burst with color next weekend! 

EPIPHANY THE DAY OF EPIPHANY IS HERE! January 6, 2020 By  Emily Huff  — Today is Epiphany which marks the Season of Light.  In the church calendar, Epiphany comes after the 12 days of Christmas and lasts until Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of Lent.  For over a decade, our family has carried on a tradition for Epiphany using a beautiful liturgy around our table, and over the years, it has become one of my favorite gatherings. Each year on Epiphany, the liturgy invites us to use a piece of chalk and to write on our door. This year, we will write the following on our doorframe: 20 C M B 20 This tradition of chalking the door has been around since the middle ages.  Some connect the letters CMB to the kings  C aspar,  M elchior, and  B althasar  since Epiphany is the time when we remember the wise men visiting Jesus on this day.    Some report that C M B stands for  Christus Mansionem Be...