Coffee-Hour Online

So a couple of years ago we wanted to make our gift giving more \"meaningful\" so we began celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. We both get a budget (this year each only $110) and are challenged to locate and purchase 12 gifts for each other. This has not been really fun, but one year we only had $4 per day to spend so we got really creative. I actually \"cheated\" by finding two days for free which increased my budget. :) Anyway, who else does something out of the ordinary for Christmas? Oh, by the way, one additional benefit......sales sales sales since we don\'t have to have all the presents before Christmas.

Our only really peculiar tradition has faded away with time (sadly). When I was younger, on Christmas Eve when we got home from all the running and visits to grandparents (and great-grandparents!), my parents would read us some Christmas-themed story each year: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever, and A Christmas Carol all made appearances over the years, along with others I can\'t immediately recall. Also, just as a personal tradition, with the exception of only one holiday season, I have read each of the Chronicles of Narnia, one per day on the seven days before Christmas, every year since I was 9 years old.

When I was younger, we used to read the Polar Express every Christmas eve. Now we watch the movie on DVD. I\'m not sure how I feel about that...

Dear friends, Which is more true for you? I learned about the Orthodox Church by reading in a book? I learned about the Orthdoox Church by meeting a person who knew about it and/or was Orthodox himself? As for me, I had actually been in an Orthodox church in high school, but it didn\'t make any impression on me. I forgot all about it completely. All I knew at the time was dispensationalist fundamentalism, and the Lutheran tradition. I learned from Lutheranism and from Reformed people to distrust dispensationalism and fundamentalism. I also learned from some Protestant authors about the Orthodox Church. Eventually, I read about the Orthodox Church from Orthodox Christians themselves. One former Protestant who became Orthodox, Peter Gillquist, played a key role in my learning of even the EXISTENCE of the Orthodox Church. I had no idea of Orthodoxy until I read people like Fr. Gillquist who made a journey into the Church. So far, my experience of church services is limited. I am at the book reading stage, but I have learned about Orthodoxy by meeting a few Orthodox priests and laity. Take care. Scott

I learned by reading Church history books.