Friday, October 12, 2018

Twelve Days of Christmas - Door County Shopping


The Twelve Days of Christmas - Door County, Wisconsin
buying locally for your true love

Your guide to 12 days of gift-giving this Christmas! Go through the list, and decide which item/activity for each day you’d like to share with your true love. You’ll notice that this whole plan can be done for somewhere around *$50. Many of these local shops have the added bonus of gift wrapping options - use it, and make your gifts looks good! Traditionally, the gifts would begin on Christmas Day, December 25, and continue through January 5.
*for best results, plan ahead and spend some money.

On the First Day of Christmas… [a partridge in a pear tree]


On the Second Day of Christmas… [two turtle doves]
  • Turtle candies
  • Pair of Gloves
    • Alpaca  to apparel (Fish Creek) - 920.536.1394      www.alpacatoapparel.com
    • Door County Alpaca (Sturgeon Bay) -920.746.4020 or Facebook @doorcountyalpaca
  • Pair of Socks
    • The Sock Lady (Sturgeon Bay Winter Farmers’ Market) - 920.743.7750  or Facebook @baypoplc
    • Alpaca to apparel (Fish Creek) - 920.536.1394                 www.alpacatoapparel.com
    • Door County Alpaca (Sturgeon Bay) - 920.746.4020 or Facebook @doorcountyalpaca


On the Third Day of Christmas… [three French hens]


On the Fourth Day of Christmas… [four calling birds]
  

On the Fifth Day of Christmas… [Five golden rings]


On the Sixth Day of Christmas… [six geese-a-laying]


On the Seventh Day of Christmas… [seven swans-a-swimming]


On the Eighth Day of Christmas… [eight maids-a-milking]
  • Maid, House cleaning
    • Door County Cleaning & Maintenance (Baileys Harbor) -920.559.7535  www.doorcountycleaning.com
    • Ahnapee Hill Cleaning (Sturgeon Bay) - 920.743.8312       http://ahnapeehillcleaning.com/
    • Mi Casa Door County (Sturgeon Bay) - 920.559.9905 or Facebook @micasasucasadoorcounty
    • Harmanny Green Cleaning (Forestville) - 920.615.8100  or Facebook @HarmannyGreenCleaning
    • Sue Dahms (Sturgeon Bay) - 920.495.6461
    • Amber Sternard (Sturgeon Bay) - 920.495.7440
  • Milk Frother
  • Milk Products


On the Ninth Day of Christmas… [nine ladies dancing]
  • Dance Lessons - Miss Andria’s Dancin’ on the Door
  • Anything from Dancing Bear (Sturgeon Bay) - 920.746.5223 www.dancingbearshop.com
  • Line Dancing
  • Robin Jay Music Shop (Founder’s Square, Fish Creek) - 920.868.1600 ???
  • **Idea: Flash mob of people dancing - no purchase necessary


On the Tenth Day of Christmas… [ten lords-a-leaping]


On the Eleventh Day of Christmas… [eleven pipers piping]


On the Twelfth Day of Christmas… [twelve drummers drumming]
  • Drum-making workshop
    • Chief Oshkosh (Egg Harbor) - 920.868.3240 or Facebook @ChiefOshkosh
  • Comedian (w/ rimshot? – it’s a stretch, but it’ll work!)

If you discover something else to add to this list, or if any changes need to be made, please reach out by email - shepherd_pg@yahoo.com, or by phone 920.743.7750

Thank you, and on behalf of the Door County Visitor Center and the local businesses, we hope you enjoy the Twelve Days of Christmas this holiday season!

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How Long?

Back in May, I joined a group of 8th graders on a tour of Washington, DC. Among the memorials, monuments and museums were the grave markers of Arlington Cemetery. It’s impressive and humbling to look at the rows of white, and, then even more so, to look closer at the names – some we know (by fame or family) and many we have never met.
War is a word we learn at a young age. Some of you are or know veterans of our nation’s conflicts abroad. Still others serve in their home country, but are away from spouses and families. The multiple deployments and training demands take their toll on the resiliency of our forces. King David’s lament in Psalm 6 could easily come from the lips of any soldier, sailor, airman, marine or coast guardsman: “How Long? How Long, O LORD?”
When our children ask that question, it’s a matter of impatience. They are just too antsy to wait: for Christmas, for sleeping over at Grandma’s, or for their tooth to fall out. For many, in more serious situations, it’s a matter of desperation. It’s an anxious time of not knowing. “How Long, O LORD?” And, in those situations, we really want it to be done and over with right now!
King David, a warrior who led many military campaigns, isn’t the only one who ever asks this question. And, when David cries out, he isn’t just a little bit annoyed with something. He’s not swatting mosquitoes while grilling a steak and drinking a beer over Memorial Day Weekend. He’s in outright anguish and agony as he waits for God to deliver him. What he knows is that he can’t make it better on his own. He can’t get away from it. He’s desperate for God to make things right.
Our military men and women today ask likewise. Deployments are lengthy. Our troops feel alone, surrounded by other lonely people. I can only imagine the weariness that battle-readiness might cause, as the daily search for strength to go on brings despair instead.
The Bible says that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual realm. That’s true, but I firmly believe that when we are worn down in one, we are more susceptible in the other.
How does God respond? When we cry out to Him on the battle field in a foreign land, or in our living room locking horns with our teenagers, we want to know how long this is going to go on! How does God respond?
He responds as He always has - He actually speaks. Sometimes, through a military chaplain or pastor, but often through a friend. The words remind us of a hope we can find – not in ourselves and in our conquests, but in Christ and His Spirit who give strength when our strength fails. When our flesh is weak and our blood is shed, it’s Christ’s shed blood and Christ’s risen body that give us hope!
If the message of Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death is a good one for us, it’s an excellent one for those who are willing to sacrifice for others – to know that Jesus Himself has been in battle, has been alone, and has conquered what many fear most.
“How long, O Lord?” isn’t always a waiting forever question.
Whether we are soldiers or citizens of this country, we have no intentions of a forever existence here. We ask “how long” and we do our duty for God and country, but we really long for the day when we are no longer waiting for the next thing: not a new tour of duty, not the next expedition, not even Friday night when the whistle blows. We wait, sometimes patiently, for Christ to make His long-awaited return in glory.
And that, too, will be a day of battle. Christ’s final defeat of the evil in the spiritual realm, and our deliverance from death. Our bodies raised to new life. Our image, restored – for “how long?” Dear child of God, it will be forever and ever, in the perfect peace of Christ’s nearer presence.
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Come Close


“We love because God first loved us.” This is a true statement, but there are other things that we do because God did them first, and made us in His image, to be like Him. We love, we create, we forgive, we serve, and, according to 2 Corinthians, we comfort or console because God has first comforted us.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:8, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers…” But, he’s not writing to share information. He’s writing to share his life, whatever it might include. He writes about difficulties. He writes of comfort, rejoicing, longing, mourning, zeal, grief, and regret…with tears, affliction, anguish, and abundant love. These are themes of our daily lives. Lives that are real, raw and messy. Lives that feature pain, death and grief – as well as healing, life and consolation. He pours out his heart and invites the Corinthian church into his world…not to feel badly for him, but to share the load.

Consolation. Para-kaleo. To call close.

Musician Christa Wells tells the story behind her song “Come Close Now.” About grief, it’s like "Being in this room upstairs in a house that is burning down and I'm strapped in a chair. And outside this house there are all these people running around with fire hoses and ladders and sirens and they are trying to fix it and make it better but I'm still alone up in this room. Eventually one, maybe two, people just quietly make their way up the front walk and they open the front door of the house and they walk up to this room that I'm in and they pull up a chair beside me and they sit down and they just sit in the burn with me." – Dan Walser, To Make a Life

Consolation isn’t about rescue, or about saying the right words to make somebody feel better. It’s not about moments of laughter in the midst of suffering. It’s about proximity. It’s about coming close.  You can be in a fishing boat, or taking a walk, sitting down to dinner, or having a beer, and be doing exactly the kind of thing Jesus did when He came close to His disciples.  

Let’s be conscious about coming close to one another. Let’s enjoy and share this life together. Might as well start now, since we’ll be together for eternity, too!

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