Greetings my readers and happy holidays. I hope you all had the Christmas you were hoping for.
So, I knew I wanted to do a post-Christmas blog but I wasn't sure what sort of direction I wanted to go in it. Today as I was talking with people at church about how our Christmases were, the idea of "the perfect Christmas" came to me. What does that mean? Can we ever truly have a Christmas that doesn't come with mistakes or where things fall short of what we wanted? Does the perfect Christmas look the same year to year, or does it change based on how that year has gone for you and/or what your plans are?
If you ask me, I had the perfect Christmas. Everything did not go smoothly (I started one service five minutes early and set my bulletin on fire at another, for example) but it was perfect for me. For the first time in years I did not have to work Christmas Eve or early the day after Christmas. This was also the first time I've experienced five Christmas Eve services. No, that is not a typo. We had five services at my Supervised Ministry church. And I loved it. Christmas is one of my favorite times of year and the Christmas Eve service is always a highlight for me, so I think the fact that I got to have multiple services and share Christmas with that many people was great. Speaking of church services, all three of my sisters came to the 4:00 children's pageant service.
I literally cannot remember the last time all four of us girls were in church at the same time, and to make it even better all my nieces and three of my four nephews were there as well. Asbury has become such an important part of my life that I was very excited to share my church with them. (And did I mention the whole favorite service thing?) I even went to church on Christmas day, which was a first for me. It was a great casual, low-key service filled with readings and carols, and a perfect way to start off Christmas day. Well, I guess technically the start of my day would be watching one of my nephews open his presents since one sister stayed at my apartment on Christmas Eve.
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| My family taking up an entire pew |
The rest of Christmas day was spent at my mom's watching Christmas movies, eating, and napping. Mom made her traditional lasagna (so good....I can never make a lasagna as good as she does). It was great to just relax and be with family, because after all isn't that what Christmas is all about really?
I watch a lot of TV and movies and they seem to set a standard on what Christmas should look like. Everyone wears pretty clothes and gathers for dinners and parties. There's kissing under the mistletoe and sledding or ice skating (not here, thank you 65 degree Christmas Eve), fancy turkey dinners are eaten by several generations of relatives, that one embarrassing relative does their thing, and the one grumpy person finds the meaning and spirit of Christmas as everyone gathers around the fire for a carol sing or a reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Or some variation of this scenario. But I find, at least in my life, that's not really what it looks like. AND THAT'S OKAY. My perfect Christmas may have sounded boring to some of you. Some of you may have wished that was your Christmas and for some of you maybe that's what your Christmas looked like too. We shouldn't put such pressure on ourselves to make the holidays look like something unauthentic to who we are and how our family lives. We shouldn't try to make Christmas look like it did when we were kids or even look the way it did the previous year. Yes, we all have traditions that carry us through year to year, but there are still going to be things that are different than before. Figure out what's important to you, what you need to feel the Christmas spirit. I have a friend who wasn't going home for Christmas and she chose, despite many invitations, to stay home alone and just have a day to be alone and relax and just be. That was a perfect Christmas for her at this time in her life. Don't compare your Christmas to any other Christmas. That's not what it's about.
So now, I'll ask you,and really think about your answer: did you have a perfect Christmas? I bet if you really think about it, you'll realize the answer just may be yes.
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