The decorations have been stowed away. Carols have long been silenced on the airwaves-as early as the day after Christmas. Life is back to “normal” after the hectic Christmas season of hosting and attending parties, shopping, decorating and visiting etc.,. A look back at the activities in the congregation during December will show that we too have been busy in the church.

Our Christmas social was held on December 13th. It was attended by more than seventy(70) people. The social was a pot luck dinner. Sabina and Garfield Simmonds, along with members of their family, decorated the church hall beautifully for the occasion. It was decorate banquet-hall fashion. Even before this the hall took on a festive appearance through the work of Bonnie and John Hendrickson and Bruce and Lois Bickerton.

The Christmas social was more than eating. After dinner everyone went upstairs in the church where we sang carols and further decorated the Christmas tree with chrismons. Gifts were given to the children, as has become our tradition. The gifts were donated by Wilhelm von Seefried and Benjamin Liang.

Another event of December in the parish was our Christmas pageant. It was an excellent presentation by our Sunday Church School. Many remarked that it was the best ever. It seem to me that we say this every year. It only testifies to the quality of the pageants our Sunday Church School put on. Good work Sunday Church School.

Also in December we participated in the Unionville Old Tyme Christmas Parade. This too was an exciting event. Once again our sister congregation, St. Paul, joined us.

Our Christmas Eve service was another excellent experience during Christmas. Many commented on the beauty and meaningfulness of the service. Firstly, of note was the way the readings were presented. The readings were done in dialogical fashion by a panel of readers who was located in the church office. Their voices came to the congregation through the PA system. The readings were guided along the way by a narrator who was Tom Nowaskey. The panel of readers was made of John Keiper, John Hendrickson, Susan Bearss, Les Weir, Dave and Eric Smith. Secondly, We had special presentations by St. Paul’s Adult and children choirs, Liisa Davis and group and Avery Schellenberg. All in all, looking back at December 2015 we can say that it was pretty busy time—but good busy.