Christmas has Launched

Last weekend we kicked off Christmas-palooza.  We had two celebrations for Todd's side and one celebration for my side and now we have three more celebrations to go.  What a crazy time of year!  We love the laughter and warmth of these family gatherings.  In the last couple of years we've noticed how the joy of giving gifts has started to supercede the joy of receiving gifts.  We love the way people's faces light up, the excitement and joy of an unexpected treasure. 

The time not spent celebrating with family has been spent scrambling around getting ready to spend time with family.  Shopping and baking and basically running around like crazy trying to stay organized.  This insanity we temper with Christmas carols and Christmas lights.  We did a brief tour around our neighborhood last Saturday night.  Todd has declared our house the most festive house on our street, but a couple streets over I think they have us beat.  No contest. 

This time is fleeting.  It's the happiest, and hardest,  time of the whole year.  We hope that next year the holidays will be filled with the wide eyed glee and laughter of our child as we introduce him or her to the wonder of this time of year. 

We received an email the other day from our good friend Allen, and I think it perfectly captures our feelings and sentiments on this time of year.  I got permission to use it as a "guest blog" post - taking some weight off my shoulders for this one (I think it's Todd's turn to take the next one!).  Hopefully it inspires some memories and happy sentiments in you too...

Christmas Time!

An unexpected memory this year… while I was setting up Christmas lights this year for some reason I remembered the old Bubbling Lites.  You know those Christmas lights that get hot enough to seemingly boil whatever colored liquid that is in these capsules.  It was like looking at a campfire…  no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop staring at them. 

 Well for anyone who knows me this will come as no surprise; I secretly kept my eyes open for these lights just in case you could still find them.  Well…  I found them!  They were everything I remembered.  Unexpectedly these lights triggered a series of memories that I haven't thought about in years at my Grandparent's house.  Whether I am thinking about the way the plates looked at Christmas Dinner or the horrible green recliner that sat in the front room I got to thinking about the Happy Faces, Laughing Voices, and Sweet smells of Christmas.

  Christmas in America, much like everything else, seems to be getting clouded with political correctness and the depressing message of a perceived perversion of a Christian Holiday.  But I would like to humbly implore all of us to look at the Happiness and Joy of the Holiday Season.  It is truly a great place where people from all walks of life can bring together traditions of so many cultures and like with so many other holidays create a distinctly American version of this holiday called Christmas.

Let's share our favorite cookies that mom used to bake.  Let's laugh about the outrageous lengths parents would go to fill our children with the Magic of Santa Claus.  Let's sit together on a couch with our coziest blanket and watch the stop motion disaster that we have all come to adore.

 How 'bout this… did you place baby Jesus in the nativity scene right away or waited until Christmas Day?  Were you the only one in Sunday School who didn't know what Frankincense and Myrrh were?
 
What are your favorite Christmas ornaments?  Is it Turkey, Ham or Both?  Does anyone actually know someone who carves the turkey on the dinner table while everyone watches… me neither.  Let's sing our favorite Christmas song.  Let's go to the mall on December 23rd, just for fun.  Let's talk about the time you hoped and hoped that Santa would bring you either Castle Greyskull or Snake Mountain and ended up with both.  When was the first time you got to go shop for someone else's gift?  Then see their face light up when it was just what they wanted. 

 Let's RESTORE this beautiful time of year with stories, laughing, and love.  Let's confidently look at each other and say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Doing so will ultimately fill our hearts with hope, peace, joy, and will inherently remind us of God's promise! 

 Immanuel…  God with Us.   

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!