MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

The snow is falling;  the phone is ringing; the cabins are ready!!  After singing Christmas Carols at the local assisted living home and at the homes of our "shut-ins" it does FEEL like Christmas.  Holiday seasons are a lot like delivering a baby.  You prepare, you plan, you feel the adrenaline start to stir you into the work involved, but until you hear that first cry you don't really believe the reality of the event. 

Christmas is a lot like that, the candlelight service, the dinner, the gifts, maybe a game or a puzzle, and then it is over...or is it.  Christmas in other countries is celebrated over the course of twelve days and it is ALL ABOUT Jesus, not gifts, not Santa, and certainly it is "not YOUR Birthday!"  Families gather at a different home each night and enjoy time together, trade stories, create traditions, enjoy each others company OR NOT!!  

Do I try to do too much, expect too much, hurry too much.  Every year I TRY to get a handle of the preparations to make sure that our celebrations are managable but memorable, but every year I start to get grouchy - more like Mr. Scrooge than I would like!  Maybe, just maybe, I tend to compare our "laid-back" once a year event to those of other families where EVERY ONE shows up, the "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." Norman Rockwell like celebrations.  Isn't that one of the ten commandments - Thou shalt not COVET?  As I used to tell my sister when she lived far from family, surely there are others who have no place to go, no "home" that they can get to, or no way to get there!   I just need to focus on the needs of others, and those who have no one to love them, no one to care for them, no one who wants them around on a Holiday.

GOOD PLAN Martha, now get with it and quit with the Mr. Scrooge thoughts!!   To quote the jolly old elf - Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!