Christmas Loves

Christmas has come and gone another year. It's really my favorite time of year, but I guess a lot of people say that. People seem to either hate the holidays or love them. I love them. And I say holidays because I'm including all of them Christmas, Thanksgiving and St Nicks day as well as New Years, Kwanza and Hanukkah and even my children's birthdays that fall during this season. Since they all end up running into each. I may not celebrate kwanza or hannukkah but I appreciate their meaning and sentiment and those who do celebrate them. It doesn't offend me that people say Happy Holidays. I just think yes have a happy holy day.



Some of my favorite things about the holidays are things that other people usually dislike. For instance the crowds and the shopping frenzy. Its seems more and more people are shopping online to avoid the crowds. I just don't understand why. I love to stand in the mall at its most crowded and just feel the energy and the buzz of it all. Not that I am much of a shopper but something about the energy in the air excites me. I don't have to find a single bargain to have fun, although I think that is a thrill too. I don't mind the cranky cashier or the rude clerk because I love saying a sincere thank you to a frazzled cashier or tired store clerk and seeing a change in their expression as the sincerity warms them a bit. I especially love it when I hear them greet their next customer a little more friendly. I love the wrapping presents frenzy. I love to wrap presents and imagine the looks of the kids as they unwrap them. i love it especially when I can take time to wrap a present special and creatively, I even liked it when I worked retail and it was my job. Maybe I should take it up as an occupation. I like to hear the Christmas carols playing over the loud speakers and I don't care that they start playing them the day after Halloween. I wish they'd play year round, since that seems to be the only way to get stores to play christian music. Actually I wish the Christmas season lasted a little bit longer and if the retail industry wants it to start in September they have a yes vote from me. I love all the decorations from the elegant and tasteful to the overdone and tacky. Actually I especially love the yards that somehow fit ten or more big inflatable or giant plastic decorations on their small yard or roof. I love the people that have no rhyme or reason to their lights but they have as many as they can fit cluttering up their yard. I love to guess the personality and lifestyle of the people living inside homes during the holidays and imagining how they plan their decor.

I love the things everyone else loves too. I love the traditions that are reinforced this time of year from the simple drive by of the same decorated streets to the elaborately planned parties. I love to bake and cook with my kids and hand out our homemade treats to friends, loved ones, family, and those we encounter each day and that serve us like the postman, the teachers, lunch lady, janitor and librarian. Just seeing their smile for remembering them spreads more joy. I love the wrapping paper and ribbons, the candles and the gingerbread houses. I love the many ranges of ways people celebrate and the fact that no two families seem to do it quite the same. I love watching the amusement on children's faces as they pick out the toys they would love to have or notice the animated decorations moving to the music or they spy Santa for the first time walking through the mall. I love making paper chains and hand print wreaths and other childhood craft favorites. I love making Christmas special for those I love. Whether it's a friend, or family member, and especially when its my own children. I love to think of just the right present, and even more I love to do something little to surprise them and cheer them during this fun season.

But most of all I love the reason for the season. I love that it all started with the birth of a baby to a virgin young girl in humble little stable with a overwhelmed earthly father and awed shephard strangers visiting. And a savior who was born gentile and volunerable yet stronger and more knowledgable than any man. I love that our God loves us so very much that he could think of no better way to save us than to become one of us. His love is so great and wisdom so amazing that he choose not to just tell us but show us the way and give us a true life model of what he imagined we could be if we would just follow him and transform ourselves to be like him, mold ourselves after him and seek him seek him seek him. I love you God and I thank you for this ultimate gift of which none can compare.