Christmas Cafe

I'm aware this doesn't look a lot like Christmas...

But the men who look as if they are AWOL from

the tree-stand are our delightful

Christmas Cafe pre-entertainment!!

(Christmas Cafe is our annual Ladies event)

They are called something different every year

and often have variations in participation.

One year they were "Men in Aprons"..

This year, "Merry Men"...it was all about being

~Merry~

~The men dressed normally are our servers!~
Here they are...performing. 

(The one stooping the lowest, btw, is our

Pastor...similar to the posture of his heart:

humble.)

Our speaker was Pati Kachel. A heartwarming

storyteller from Shoreview, MN. 

We were beyond blessed!!!

 Pati is Scandinavian as you can see
by the props in my photos!...in my 

experience with Scandanavians 
(and there are many in "these parts"!), 
they are fullof life, and creativity,

 humor, and depth...

and Pati proved once again, it's true!

Her stories and songs tugged our hearts

back to childhood memories of
shopping & baking with mama, & 

White Christmas with the sound of Bing Crosby,

and then upward to the faithfulness 
of our ever-present Savior.

 Here is Pati:

We have a resident (very talented) 
song re-writer in our midst
my very own "other mother" Mary. 
(she adopted me and I her!
she is the one with the beautiful 
white hair in the center of the video!)
Here is one of the songs she wrote
and the Merry Men performed for us...

Tidings of comfort and Joy to you!