10 Most Popular Inspired Posts of 2014

**Note: I know I have promised videos, but the filming of said videos has been postponed due to technical difficulties. I will have them published as soon as possible!

The Starving Inspired has grown so much because of you folks (despite my quite unintentional mid-autumn hiatus). Thank you for reading and commenting and putting up with the name changes and welcoming new and wacky ideas for this space, sharing posts, and for being here for a fantastic internet friendship. I feel like I've gotten to know a few of you especially well over the last year, and have loved every minute of it. Can't wait to meet some of you in person next year, Godwilling (*cough cough* Mariah and hopefully Abbey)! I'm so grateful for all of you. TSI has gone from around 10 consistent readers to near 350. Yikes! To quote one of the blogs I read and can't remember the name of off the bat... It's a little crazy, but pretty amazing.

So, I owe all of you a big fat THANK YOU!

Christ's birth is more powerful than the history of sin.

**Note: I know I have promised videos, but the filming of said videos has been postponed due to technical difficulties. I will have them published as soon as possible!

By Ann Schneible

Christmas Eve 2014

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve (like you needed me to tell you that... who knows, maybe you live under a rock like me and you did need me to tell you.), and my family and I will once again be heading to my mother's home-city for the Hanlin clan's annual Christmas party. I think it's been mentioned here before, but just in case... it's a blast. There are over 100 of us now between my mom's 12 siblings, their kids, and their kids, so we have a standing reservation at a hall on Christmas Eve. We no longer git into my mom's childhood home, now owned and tended by my youngest aunt and her family.

I'm looking forward to laughs, amazing food (like, youhavenoidea), terribly awful singing of carols, and gift exchanging.

Christmas Letter - 2014

Continuing with the tradition I began here last year, the following is my Christmas letter to you, my dear friends and readers. It’s been sent out to certain far-away family and friends who we aren’t able to talk to or see on a regular basis, so I have removed some of it for purposes of privacy. Also, a note: I know that my parents don’t especially like being written about on the world wide web, so I have extensively shortened the portions referring to them, but other than that, the letter is as is. Just thought I should mention why the part about myself is so much longer than the others. (I’m not self-inflated, I swear!)

Dear friends and readers,

            Merry Christmas and happy coming New Year. I don’t even know where to begin with the tale of 2014. So many new and wonderful things have fallen into my family’s collective lap. It’s been an exciting ride, let me tell you.

Christmas is about a wedding. {guest}

Today, I'm happy to have Patty from A Modern Grace on the blog. She wrote a lovely post last week, and I had to pass it on to you folks. Patty is a new-ish wife finishing grad school, working in youth ministry, and learning to cook more than your average Lean Cuisine. She loves curling up with a good book, John Wayne movies, and a tasty mimosa. Her motto in live is: "Striving to live with grace, glass, and on occasion, some sass." Enjoy!

Christmas is not about a birthday, it's about a wedding.

The Promised Video. 7QT (vol. 43)

1. I thought it was high time Beowulf and Enzo met each other. Of course, I documented it.

2. Here is the video I had intended to post last Friday. If any of my readers happen to be listeners of Ave Maria Radio, you may have heard His Jolliness St. Nicholas on the air last Thursday morning during our urgent fund drive. Isn't that costume something? He's come around this time for the past few years, and it's always great fun to have him in studio.

Bo meets the hedgehog.

Beowulf has been living here for about three months now, so I thought it was high time to introduce her to the hedgepig, Enzo. Of course, I documented the whole thing. Enjoy.

All about them vids. 7QT (vol. 42)

1. Good morning, Inspireds! Or afternoon. Or whenever you may be stopping by my corner of web-world. Welcome. If you haven't already, watch the video below, and then visit the post from November 30 and enter to win the best giveaway I've ever hosted on this blog. Best of luck!

If you've seen it and entered, feel free to skip on by. I promise I won't be offended.

Oliver.

For the second time in two years after vowing not to shop on Black Friday, I shopped on Black Friday. And I'd like you to meet who I found.

Hint:

Our King's Place

When I was a little girl, I remember my favorite Bible story being Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats. I don't know why, but that story always stuck with me. Maybe it was because so many animals were involved. 

If you're unfamiliar with the story, here you go: