Merry Christmas from KC Frantzen!

Welcome back everyone!
Hope your weekends were all festive and wonderful! Here, it's trying to snow (really hard!!), we set up Christmas tree, decorated a lot! All in all, a goot time : )

Moving right along though, we have a very special visitor today helping to spread the Christmas cheer during the blogfest. Everyone, please kindly welcome KC Frantzen!! You probably have seen KC (and her lovely dog, May) around on the blogosphere in places like Seekerville or Seasons of Humility blogs. She is an extremely kind person and I'm thrilled to have her here with us today!! Onward to the interview:

H: What is your favorite part(s) of the Christmas season?

KC: Thanks for including an (s) there…
Marveling that we have God with us, and He chose to come as an INFANT. Wow.
Renewing acquaintances from the year
Seeing the delight on a face at a gift well-chosen
Dressing up the dogs in their Christmas collars

H: Your welcome! You chose some great things to highlight, KC, but I have to say...awwwwww! We change our puppie's bandana for special occasions/holidays. She even wore a graduation cap for my graduation party this year! What are some of your traditions? (i.e. food, gift giving, family traditions, etc)?

KC: We typically spend every other major holiday with each other's relatives so that makes it special. We donate lambs/rabbits/chickens to Gospel for Asia Ministry.
This year we sent a sewing machine.

H: Wow, KC that's so wonderful! Actually coming up when Cheryl Wyatt's interviewed, she mentioned things similar to this. I won't spoil it, but be sure to drop by to see what she talked about, okay? How lucky they are to have people like you and your husband in this world. Do you have a favorite Christmas themed book/recommendation? Movie?

KC: Being an animal lover, The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado is a favorite. Makes me cry every time. The Touched by an Angel Christmas double episode with Randy Travis. It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas and for pure fun, Christmas Vacation and a Christmas Story!

H: Ohhhh I used to LOVE Touched by an Angel.
We used to watch it with Mom, because she loved it too. Thanks for bringing back some great memories, girl! We used to read The Crippled Lamb, I think....I looked it up and I know the cover. Will have to poke around here and see if I can find it again for this Christmas! THIS is a really cute adaptation of this book, KC!
If you had to pick one “symbol” of Christmas (i.e. ornaments, the tree, the lights, the nativity set, etc.), what would you pick as your favorite?

KC: Ornaments, for as I say, we have so many memories entwined with our collection. They are special. Not worth much to anyone else probably, but they are to us! I still have several paper ornaments from when I was little. We hardly had 2 cents to rub together but had a roof over our head and were happy. My parents worked very hard and made sure we had what we needed, and a little more. This particular Christmas time, we needed some boxes. So we made the rounds, driving behind stores in a strip mall. There was an upscale shop which had just thrown out some things, including package decorations. I still think they are lovely and they go on our tree annually. It's a good reminder. (KC also shared with me that her and her husband collect ornaments from everywhere they travel!)

H: We do the same thing with collecting ornaments from places travelled. It's interesting because now that we've been so many places over the years, Mom doesn't even put ornaments on our tree. It consists only of my sister's and my ornaments now. It's still really fun to reflect, I agree! That's such a great story too about the boxes. Ornaments mean nothing unless there is a story to go with them, I'd say.

These are some bests. Just fill them in with your favorite/the best.
Christmas present as a child? Snow at Christmas time when I was VERY small (in Houston)
Christmas song? Carol of the Bells and anything from The Messiah
Christmas food? MUST HAVE RICE DRESSING!!! And homemade cranberry sauce! We ALWAYS have wassail (homemade) and usually one round of egg nog (not homemade).

KC: This is an opportunity to publicly thank our military, law enforcement, first responders and their families. We appreciate all you do for us, your sacrifice and courage. Know we remember you in prayer, especially at this time of year, with weather changes and often great distances between you and your families. We also remember our wounded and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. You are not forgotten.

And remember that Jesus Christ came as an infant, but He grew up! He came to make the ultimate sacrifice, paying the penalty for OUR sin, that we might live in Heaven forever. That is the greatest holiday gift of all.

Thank you, KC, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to celebrate this wondrous holiday with us! Please, take some time out of your day to check out this rising author's website. Her books are about her dog, May, who's a cutie, by the way!! Also, if any of you can, check out her first chapter of her book. She would love to get some critique back on it, so listen to it and then contact her. Also, she would love to get children listening to it as well, since that is the age group she'd targeting. Thanks for you help!!

And now, onto our Mystery Song of the Day!! Hint: This is a feel good song that makes you want to sing along (what Christmas song doesn't, right!?). You hear these a lot more at Christmas time, I think ; ) This version might be a little different than what you hear on the radio, but I love it!! Now I know there have been a lot of links already, but this is a fun, quirky, more modern version of our mystery song of the day!

Okay, now that I've talked your ear off ANOTHER day, I will let you get back to your regularly scheduled programming ; ) Another big thank you to KC for stopping by today!! I hope to see all of you the rest of the month too since this blogfest IS ongoing. There are some really fun giveaways coming and our first author interview with Ruth Logan Herne is this coming Wednesady, December 8, so be sure to join us!!
Thanks for reading : )
Hannah