We had a great kickoff yesterday to our Christmas series, It’s Christmas Time!

“Kyle and the Band” played with passion and intensity.

My favorite song in the set was Christ is Come by Big Daddy Weave.  It was the perfect song to set up to my message, What Christmas is All About.

The Elf on the Shelf was a big hit.  All 24 books sold out quickly and $720 was raised for Christmas at the Hope Center.

Buddy the Elf does not like playing 2nd fiddle.

The Christmas decorations were simply amazing.   The staff and volunteers, especially, Jay Lawrence, did a tremendous job decorating the church.  I absolutely love seeing the lights at night.  Rusty is Clark W. Griswold.

And thank you again to Del Peterson for donating the beautiful Frazier Furs in the lobby.  If you still need to buy a tree, he has a Christmas tree lot in Snellville on Hwy 78 in front of K-Mart.

It was great having the egg nog, hot apple cider, and chocolate mint coffee at the coffee bar.  I’m a big fan of the later.

We are counting down to the days until our Candlelight Christmas Eve Service.

The Classic Christmas movie montage was fun.

How about Linus reading Luke 2:8-14 for me?

Among others, here’s who I might have offended yesterday: Black Friday shoppers, Harry Potter fans, Florida Gator fans (winners of the 1994 SEC Championship), and Jennifer.

When I was saying that Jennifer and I have differences in vacation preferences, I was not saying that one is right or wrong.  We are simply different and we have had to negotiate and work through this in our marriage.  On our vacation, we went to Universal Studios 3 days, and we chilled out at the condo/resort 3 days.  If it was not for Jennifer, the kids would not have gotten to ride so many rides.  I’m pretty sure we rode Revenge of the Mummy 10 times.  BTW, the single rider line is the way to go at Universal.

We’ll talk more about dating, marriage, family, and parenting in our January series, I Want a Better Life.  I’m anticipating weeks 2, 3, and 4 to be especially exciting:  I Want a Better Wife/Girlfriend, I Want A Better Husband/Boyfriend, and I Want Better Kids.

But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we still have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year before then.

Let me encourage everyone to make room for Jesus this Christmas and center our lives around the Savior!