Thoughts on Christmas

All the tinsel and lights
make the holidays nice
but the real gift is You.

Its Christmas. When you go to the mall, you see stressed shoppers exchanging half-hearted "holiday greetings" (in lieu of the politically incorrect "Merry Christmas") and snatching up large quantities of expensive items that they will use to spread holiday cheer while they max out credit cards in an attempt to prove love to friends and family and enemies.

When entering December, it is culturally expected that happiness and joy and peace will abound. Despite rainy and cold days, the hot chocolate and twinkling lights and Christmas carols are supposed to drown out any and all negative feelings. You're supposed to be happy. Its the season of parties, of course the world is wonderful and life is good.

But what if its not? What about the people who are hurting? The ones who are mourning a death or dealing with a job loss or facing a health obstacle? What about them?

Its been a dramatic year for me. I do sometimes selfishly want to feel sorry for myself, but then I end up pitying myself. I'll admit it: at first I was loathe to face December with all its happy people and fancy parties and laughing Santas. I just didn't really feel like celebrating. There's a lot of sin in the world, a lot of war and pain and hurt and bad things -- and I was reminded of that many times this year in various circumstances I found myself in. Christmas festivities didn't really interest me.

But then I realized a fundamental truth: we are celebrating Jesus' birth. Stop. Think about it. Breathe that in. Jesus came into the world as a baby so that he could die on the cross to take on Himself the punishment for our sins. He came so that we can live victorious and not in defeat. At Christmas, I'm not celebrating the end of another year or the soon beginning of a new year (though those are good things, too) -- I am, in fact, celebrating that I don't have to live defeated by the sin in this world.

Read that again: I am celebrating Jesus' birth and the fact that I don't have to live defeated by the sin in this world.

Sure, its been a tough year. Yes, people have let me down and circumstances haven't gone the way I thought they would. But, despite all that I. Can. Live. Victoriously. And so I will.

And because of His coming, I celebrate.

And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life
[I Celebrate the Day by RelientK]

Family Time

In my defense, I will be non-stop busy between now and mid-December.

In addition, my family spent the evening at my place and needed entertainment.

And, finally, its my first Christmas in my new apartment. I needed to see how it looks decorated.

No, its not after Thanksgiving. But, yes, my Christmas tree is up and running.

Don't judge, okay?





By the way, just because a boxed tree promotes ease of set-up doesn't mean its going to be a simply procedure to get everything up and running. Pre-lit trees are obviously the smart way to go, as long as all the fuses are properly functioning. Just saying.



My Martha Stewart inspired Christmas has begun.

Kinda purty, huh?

Christmas Cards

I love Christmas. Absolutely adore it. The hot chocolate. The peppermint ice cream. The candlelit dinners. Slumber parties by the Christmas tree. Family evenings. Nativity scenes. The music. The snow. The Chi'mas lights (to quote my li'l sis when she was still the li'l sis.) Family trips to my grandparent's house for hiking, biking, and eating.

And, of course, I love getting Christmas cards.

I mean, who doesn't?

You got to the mailbox on a blustery, gray day. Maybe even fighting the rain or snow. Its been a dreary, long day. And its already dark. Its only 4:30 and already the sun is setting.

So there you are, on this gray day, walking to the mailbox. You open it up - maybe even fighting the frozen hinge a bit -- and staring back at you on the gloomy day is a pile of red and green and gold envelopes. Big envelopes. Bright envelopes. Happy envelopes. Inevitably, envelopes bearing the return address of a long lost relative, a childhood friend, a former teacher, a school buddy.

With that trip to the mailbox, the whole day gets brighter.

Back in the house, you sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and settle in to read the cards and see how your long lost friends are surviving.

The front of the card is pretty. Maybe an idyllic snow scene. Or a glittery nativity scene. Or a forest with a cute little bird flitting among the branches.

You open the card.

"Merry Christmas. Love, the Smiths."

Um....WHAT?!?! No letter? No update on life? No picture?!?!

Suddenly, the day is depressing all over again.

That, my friends, is my Christmas pet peeve. I don't understand why someone would spend a couple dollars on a card, forty-four cents on postage, and the effort to write my name on an envelope...and then leave me with a huge letdown with no personalized touch. (Unless, of course, you call the handwritten name a personalized touch. I don't.)

Ergo, I have an offer.

(No, I'm not going to write your Christmas letter for you. Sorrrrry. Not that generous!)

I will take your picture. You will get a CD of the images with the full rights to print the pictures off for your friends and relatives. Your friends and relatives will love you forever when you don't leave them with an impersonal Christmas card.




And, besides, just think: if you get Christmas pictures taken, I won't be peeved by you, nor depressed by your Christmas card!

fine print: pricing good through December 25, 2009 for up to six family members. subject to photographer's schedule availability.

Christmas Flowers

After the broken camera fiasco of two weeks ago, I was thoroughly excited to open my gifts and find a brand new lens with even wider aperture settings! See the beautiful picture?

Christmas at Grandma's