Where do I begin?... Let me start at our Christmas Eve celebration at church. It was fabulous. They did a great job in their presentation of the Gospel in a musicale format. It's not the usual Nativity Story, nevertheless, it brought the meaning of Christmas so clearly - it was well done. I must admit though that I missed the traditional "service" (or mass). I miss the solemn celebration of Jesus' coming, complete with traditional hymns sang by a choir...
We came home...and that's when the "drama" begun. Well... it's not really a drama. It just that sometime after we arrived at home, I started feeling a bit nostalgic, a bit depressed and a bit anxious. It's hard to describe what it was but I felt a downward spiral of mood. My husband noticed it and asked me what's wrong... but I could not give a clear answer. It's just that "down feeling" that I had to fight...and thankfully I won over... (the next day).
I didn't know where that "sad feeling" came from. Maybe it's from the lack of extended family around to celebrate with...maybe it's the difference in culture and how we celebrate Christmas here (we didn't have Christmas eve Dinner or Noche Buena here)... maybe it's the anxiety I feel about gifts (not sure if I got enough for hubby)...maybe it's because our friends who we are going to celebrate Christmas with are doing a non-traditional meal and non-traditional celebration - sandwiches instead of the turkey or ham dinner) etc..all I can think of are all maybes....
Thankfully we have kids (8 and 9). On Christmas morning, they both woke up very early and jumped on our bed ready for "Christmas Day". And so I rallied... I put on my "happy face" until the pretense became real and the joy of Christmas returned. Hubby read the Christmas Story from the Bible before we started opening presents and that helped me get back into a more joyful Christmas spirit...
Today I read a post of Poppycock about her Christmas what she said is so true:
"To fantasize about a perfect Christmas is disappointing, especially if we look towards, and fall short of our own Christmas card expectations. When we mind about ideal gifts, the perfect party, the better wine, the unsteadiness of relationships, more so an unfortunate Christmas eve fire, and so on, we find how effortlessly we spoil Christmas, specially if we make it dependent upon these things. But to remember the reason for the season -- that God so loved us that He sent His only Son Jesus to die for our sins, is what Christmas is truly all about. Which gives us peace, joy, and abundant love, that allows for us to smile after the tears, hope against hope, and move on through our fears. And that I know, for I lived it." (I know and live it too - Liza)
How about you? How did you do this Christmas Day?
1 comment:
Fabulous post. How true it is. We do depend on the "things" to make Christmas special, when it shouldn't be that way. If we just concentrated on the true meaning of Christmas it would be a wonderful day. Thanks for the reminder.
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