So....merry Christmas Eve everyone.
It's been merry up to this point for me, too....But then, it happened. We go to a Christmas Eve service every year, and upon returning from it tonight...Well, lets just say the peppermint candy cane cookies I'd slaved over all afternoon were no where to be seen.
We kicked our goldendoodle Abby out of the house into the cold to ponder her actions and banished my smaller dog Odie to the upstairs to do the same. Then in silent sorrow I picked up the small candy crumbs left behind and sighed heavily a few times. Mom sympathized. So did Dad. Myron wanted to go play xbox.
It was a disappointment, but....they are only cookies after all.
It's been merry up to this point for me, too....But then, it happened. We go to a Christmas Eve service every year, and upon returning from it tonight...Well, lets just say the peppermint candy cane cookies I'd slaved over all afternoon were no where to be seen.
We kicked our goldendoodle Abby out of the house into the cold to ponder her actions and banished my smaller dog Odie to the upstairs to do the same. Then in silent sorrow I picked up the small candy crumbs left behind and sighed heavily a few times. Mom sympathized. So did Dad. Myron wanted to go play xbox.
It was a disappointment, but....they are only cookies after all.
It's a little odd. This holiday season has been a rather disorganized and iffy one for my family and I. I think there's just a lot of reflection of last year that's making it this way. My gram passed away last December, so that Christmas time was a very hard one. The Christmas tree was bought from a parking lot for the first time. Ever. The decorations went up much too late. The presents were bought and wrapped at strange times. Frequently it was just the kids at home. Mom was gone all the time at the hospital in New London, Dad worked, Gregory was out a lot, and that left me and my little brother. You'd think all that would just ruin Christmas. But it really didn't. Yes, it was very tough, but it's in those tough times that we grow closest to God I think, when we see that we really can't make it on our own, relying on our strength to hold us up. So it was then, I guess, that I really grasped the true meaning of Christmas. The 'true meaning of Christmas' sounds a little hokey after all that it's been commercialized to be. But still. Sometimes you think you get something, but then when something happens that really makes you see, you realize you've never actually gotten it until now. That's how it was for me. I got it. That it's not all about the decorations and the food and the family and friends and lights and movies and music. That stuff is cool and all, but it's not what Christmas is about. It's about a dad who sent his one and only son down to live in a fallen world and save it. Can you imagine that? I don't even know how he did it. It just blows my mind. So no. Last Christmas wasn't ruined really. It was made. This Christmas has been primarily the same. Lacking in the organization factor and bountiful in the hectic-ness, and I still think I 'get it'. Sometimes it has just taken a little digging or a beautiful Christmas carol to get it out there again.
* * *
Tonight is Christmas Eve, and that still sounds funny to say. It just doesn't feel like it should be time yet! But it is, and Myron has gone to bed hurriedly, anticipating...Mom is washing some dishes and then finishing the christmas wrapping last minute, as it happens every year, Gregory's out who-knows-where, Dad's cooking, and I'm sitting up here in my dimly lit room, listening to trust 100.5 (all christmas, all the time), writing. Tomorrow we'll see how early I wake up. Last year it was 7 am and that seemed horrifically late, considering the fact every year before then I'd jumped out of bed around 5:30. Seven am or not though, the tradition of me and my brothers all tip-toing down the stairs into the sleepy darkness, surveying the presents, grabbing our stockings and then seperating into our rooms to open them still held true, and it will this year also. Until somone moves out, that's how it will work. When we're done with the stockings, we usually take a tour of each other's rooms to see the outcome of our unstocking-ing and then we'll become a little impatient and go wake up our mom and dad. Then we'll all mosy down the stairs together. Us kids will sit ourselves down in our designated unwrapping territories and wait until the parents have fixed a much need cup of coffee. Then it'll begin ;) Between many laughs, much christmas music, much mess everywhere, and lots of cookie consuming, the morning will go by, and we'll start preparing for the Meal. This year we're having my Aunt Heide and Gramp over, that's all. Keeping it nice and small. It'll be wonderful. The shunned dogs will once again be loved, fingers, tired from hours of wrapping and bow-tying, will have relief, stomachs will be ready to be filled, candles will be lit, and everything will be wonderful....
I'm excited. And off to bed.
Merry Christmas Everyone, God Bless.
* * *
Tonight is Christmas Eve, and that still sounds funny to say. It just doesn't feel like it should be time yet! But it is, and Myron has gone to bed hurriedly, anticipating...Mom is washing some dishes and then finishing the christmas wrapping last minute, as it happens every year, Gregory's out who-knows-where, Dad's cooking, and I'm sitting up here in my dimly lit room, listening to trust 100.5 (all christmas, all the time), writing. Tomorrow we'll see how early I wake up. Last year it was 7 am and that seemed horrifically late, considering the fact every year before then I'd jumped out of bed around 5:30. Seven am or not though, the tradition of me and my brothers all tip-toing down the stairs into the sleepy darkness, surveying the presents, grabbing our stockings and then seperating into our rooms to open them still held true, and it will this year also. Until somone moves out, that's how it will work. When we're done with the stockings, we usually take a tour of each other's rooms to see the outcome of our unstocking-ing and then we'll become a little impatient and go wake up our mom and dad. Then we'll all mosy down the stairs together. Us kids will sit ourselves down in our designated unwrapping territories and wait until the parents have fixed a much need cup of coffee. Then it'll begin ;) Between many laughs, much christmas music, much mess everywhere, and lots of cookie consuming, the morning will go by, and we'll start preparing for the Meal. This year we're having my Aunt Heide and Gramp over, that's all. Keeping it nice and small. It'll be wonderful. The shunned dogs will once again be loved, fingers, tired from hours of wrapping and bow-tying, will have relief, stomachs will be ready to be filled, candles will be lit, and everything will be wonderful....
I'm excited. And off to bed.
Merry Christmas Everyone, God Bless.
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