Christmas from a Carol (a little late)



Advent Wreath

I know...Christmas was over like 3 weeks ago.  Well, I'm posting this anyway...just because I want to.  Actually, I need to.  I feel proud of the Christmas we had.  It wasn't the easiest...or the grandest...or the most present-filled, generously gifted Christmas--by no means.  In fact, we found ourselves extremely short of money this year.  So much that on some days preceeding it, I wondered how we were going to get presents under the tree at all.  In fact, this year everything was going wrong.  My pre-lit Christmas tree was no longer lighting...every bulb save about 15 or 20 was out; my Christmas music was stuck on a laptop which had a distroyed screen and I couldn't retrieve it or pay anyone to do it for me;  I lost my favorite Christmas Cookie Cookbook; and my small tree that we received as a gift, which we use as a sort of advent calendar, was broken.  I had no money to remedy any of these things, and my Christmas Spirit was waning.

What did it matter anyway?  I had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It was hopeless.

One day, I was watching the Martha Stewart Show, and she had as guests, a mens accapella choir singing traditional Christmas carols.  It was all quite festive with sparkling Christmas sweaters and trees on the set, allaborately decorated.  Everyone bubbling over with appropriate cheer.  Right in the middle of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" I spilled over into a grovelling tear fest.  I am ashamed.

I sat down and tried to figure out why in heaven's name was I crying?  What I came up with was that Christmas, to me, is a time when...well.... all is calm, all is bright.  And I wasn't feeling calm and bright.  I was feeling anxious and gloomy.

My husband always complains when I start playing Christmas music, sometimes as early as November 1st.  To him, Christmas is a time of stress and hassle.  To me, it's always been the most...well...wonderful time of the year.  My memories of Christmas were always some of the best memories I had as a child...and even coming home from college.  It was a time where everyone came away from their stressful lives and just stopped and we all had a chance to just be happy...and Christmas made everything OK...and even magical. My parents always made it feel that way.  If ever they were stressed because of Christmas, it was not shown to us in any light.  And I'm really grateful for that. 

And they taught us what we were celebrating...above all...the reason we did these things was because this was the time to celebrate the birth of our Lord.  And that was made very clear.

So, there I was, crying, listening to that choir end that carol and start to sing, "Here We Go A Wassailing" and came to this realization:  everything I went over in my mind of what Christmas meant to me...what feelings I remembered from growing up... none of them had anything to do with presents.  It was family, tradition, love, and...Jesus.  I was emphasizing the wrong things.  And my kids knew that too.

That day, I went to my cupboards and pulled out some old candles, took my wreath off my door, and put together a make-shift Advent Wreath.  I placed it on the very first surface one see's when entering our home, and that evening my kids and I sat down and they learned what it was.

Basically, if you don't already know (but a lot of Christians don't), its a wreath with 5 candles...four in a circle and one in the middle.  Often the circle includes 3 purple candles that represent Christ's royalty, and one pink candle that represents the celebration of his coming.  One candle is lit each week starting four weeks before Christmas with the pink on the last week.  On Christmas day the middle white candle is lit to signify that Christ has come.  Celebrate! (Click on the link below the picture of the Advent Wreath above to read a really good explanation of what Advent means.)

So with my mind re-directed, my husband supporting me, and my kids just being their sweet selves, we had Christmas.  I came home after working all night on Christmas morning and as soon as I walked in the house we started festivities.  The Christmas story was read and the Christ candle was lit.  And what do you know!  God provided money for some presents for the kids.  Here we are around the dimly-lit tree and the Advent Wreath.

Our bibles are open on the coffee table in the pic on the left and the advent wreath is in the corner in the pic on the right.  (Please excuse the very unbecoming picture of my dog.) Wait!  Hold up!  Is that?.....

Why yes it is! There's my boys touching each other in an actual "brotherly" way!  Rare.  Usually they're wrestling, pushing, or pinging the other in the face with a football.  Humph! 

So, we opened the presents...

 

That bottom right picture...that's the Cookie Monster hat my son has been asking for for two years now.  I never could bring myself to buy it but...he's so happy...never takes it off.  (I'm shaking my head in surrender.)



Then my dear husband made breakfast for us.  Yes!  I did say my HUSBAND MADE BREAKFAST on Christmas morning.  Set the table and all.  He even put little apple slices on the rims of our glasses filled with sparkleing apple juice.  That man is so sweet.  Then he sent me to bed and cleaned up all by himself too.  That's the kind of man he is.

When I got up, he had the table set again and served a very elegant ham and potato Christmas dinner before I had to leave for work.  Very impressive.  He even had pie and ice cream. 

Since I worked Christmas, but had New Years off, my parents came down on New Years Eve.



We had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma.  Grandpa even took my dog on a nice winter walk while Grandma played board games with the kids.  And we talked...

And talked....





And had coffee and my husband talked some more!  Just kidding dear husband!  Love to hear you talk!  In fact that was one of the things that first made me fall in love with you.

And I am humbled, and tired...and have learned that God teaches us at the time when we are ready to learn...sometimes that means we have to go through some low places.  And then those places end up being the most special.





Christmas Toys

Well, Christmas is past, the year is new, and its time to think about taxes. Happy January! We had a great time up in Cheyenne with my parents for Christmas. It was great getting to spend time in their new house and watch the kids enjoy themselves. I wish we could have gotten up there sooner to hear my dad preach for the Christmas Eve service, but circumstances kept us from arriving in time. I was very disappointed and so were the kids. DS #1 said to me, "He's the preacher! Couldn't he just make the service go longer until we get there?"


But we had a nice time. The kids opened all the presents filled with toys that they had requested at some point during the recent past. As luck would have it, one toy broke, then another, then another. After drying some tears and using a lot of super glue, I found myself getting discouraged. But God is good. He used this situation to cause our family to come together and really think about what we were celebrating. The Birth of Jesus Christ. We watched the movie "The Nativity" which started wonderful conversations between my children and their grandparents. I loved watching their curiosity and listening to their questions about Christ (and circumcision and birth which...well... we'll come back to that when they're a little older....)

We stayed until the afternoon of the 26th.


The kids, of course are still home on Christmas vacation (otherwise known as "holiday" vacation.) They will be returning on Tuesday, Jan 6. Not sure why they can't go back on Monday. I think they will be good and ready to go back...at least Mom and Dad will be. The house has been so full of life over the past couple of weeks, but a little quiet time will be much appreciated. The boys have been playing with their new video game almost constantly. It's hard to get them off to do more active things...I'm glad to see them enjoying something together, though. My daughter loves to get online on the "Webkinz" site. Its pretty typical to see her playing online and singing at the top of her lungs at the same time...usually a song from her Christmas program. She went to spend some money that she got from Grandpa and Grandma L. and she chose a Barbie doll that came with a little dog that Barbie could "walk" etc. I was amazed when after seeing her play with the toy dog for an hour, I saw that the Barbie wasn't even taken out of the package!


I asked her, "Did you just get that Barbie for the play dog?"

"Yes," she replied without looking up or stopping her play. "Look Mommy! See, if you put the food in the doggie's mouth like this...and then you lift up its tail...it poops!!!"


I stood there in shocking disbelief...what has the world come to that they would make a toy dog that poops?

Costs for Christmas: Want to Share?

OK, here’s an idea that came from a nursing friend that I thought was great. She knows a lot about cutting expenses and getting through Christmas fairly frugally. She and her husband used to own a pizza restaurant that unfortunately went under after 9/11. Having four kids and a lot of debt, she and her husband were forced to be creative.

She has each of her kids pick the top 3 things that they would like for Christmas and put it down on a list. Then she shares the list with the rest of the family. She and the grandparents share the costs of getting these top three things. She then tags each of the presents: from “Mom and Dad,” from “Grandpa and Grandma,” and from “Santa.” She also wraps up things like clothes, boots, and other necessities that she would buy anyway so that the kids have more packages under the tree. She suggests waiting to buy clothing for the first day of school. The kids see what the other kids are wearing and come home asking for the things that they want. She then buys them over the fall and wraps them up for Christmas.

So, I had the kids make their top 3 picks the other day... I had to redirect a little due to the fact that a laptop and a trampoline (on Adam’s list) was a bit out of reach. Then he asked for a cell phone! This kid is 9 years old! OK, so he understands that he has to wait until he’s older for that…and maybe until he gets a job! So now, they have finalized their lists. I feel that since it is before Thanksgiving, I am ahead of the game. At least I’m not at Toys R Us two days before Christmas sorting through picked over toys and purchasing things that will be played with for a week and then forgotten.

Anyone want to join me on this?