Thanks to encouragement from many of you, our Magnalia Elves and generous donors worked together to help create community and make some gift-giving dreams come true this week!

Our first-ever Magnalia Homestead Christmas Auction brought joy and merriment to participants near and far, and the gift-giving experiences will come to life for months to come.

We’re hoping that the whole experience, including “popcorn bidding” on many items up to (and beyond) the midnight deadline on December 21, offered a creative and fun alternative to shopping on Amazon or at the malls. Our goal was to raise $5,400 to fund the budget for the furnishings, equipment and materials needed for The Art Studio in The Jubilee Barn. So how did it go?

Together we raised $8,198!

To see the full list of items that were up for bid, you can click here. Among the many treasures donated, the top-valued items included:

  • commissioned paintings from local artist Heidi Yacoubian
  • a Fleet Plummer gift certificate
  • a Wolfe Homes Front Door Restoration
  • a Southern Edge Seasonal Flowerscape
  • Legacy Summits at Green Valley Grill with Dick and Donna Van Eerden
  • a Couple’s Overnight at Walden Cabin
  • John Mark VE’s Labor Voucher (valued at more than double his younger brothers LOL)
  • “Burger & Fries Outing with Eddie” to Hops Burger Bar, and
  • THE TOP BID-WINNER – a trip with Captain Ed on the USS Marsh

There was much holiday merriment and laughter-laced messaging shared along the way to a great outcome, and we hope to repeat the experience again next December with more “gifts that give,” curated by your Magnalia Elves.

All this gift-giving is of course but a reminder of the reason for the season. We remember The Gift of All Gifts – that the Son of God became a Son of Man so that we sons and daughters of men might become sons and daughters of the Living God! Emmanuel means “God with us.” Rather than a distant God, the God we know and worship came to suffer with and for us so that we might experience life enjoyed in His company. And, as Handel reminds us with such glory in the masterpiece Messiah:

He shall reign for ever and ever
King of kings (for ever and ever)
And Lord of lords (hallelujah, hallelujah)
And He shall reign for ever and ever!

May your time with those you love this Advent and Christmas season be a time of treasuring up the eternal things – which are the only gifts that actually keep giving. Forever.

Merry Christmas!

With love from your friends at Magnalia

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