Remembering Christmas Past

I haven't put much pressure on this Christmas.  We are only doing what works for each day, making a tentative plan for each day / week.  I don't feel rushed or cramped; Christmas is a lot of fun this year.  I can't wait to see their faces on Christmas morning.  We are counting sleeps!  I could just cry!  I'm so so excited.

It has been almost 7 years coming for me to be this excited about Christmas again.  Seven years is a long time to be bummed about Christmas, especially when you remember loving it so much as a child.  My brothers and I would literally wait, watching the clocks Christmas Eve night, waiting for 6AM so we could wake our parents.

I remember the Christmas I got earrings.  I didn't have my ears pierced, so I was very confused; on the tree was a second gift - a certificate for the piercing!  That was one of my greatest Christmas's; I was 13, I think.  Mom got her ears done that year too!

I remember racing around the "big pillows" to Spike Jones "All I want for Christmas!"  and dog piling with my brothers when the music stopped.  We looked forward to doing that all year long and would very rarely pull out the tape in the middle of the year, just to give it a go.  It was never the same as being in that Christmas excitement.

I remember helping with Christmas dinner.  I loved setting the table with special plates and silverware and cloth napkins.  I remember candles and gingerbread houses.  I remember friends and lots of baking.  Chocolate.  I remember snowmobiling with our church friends.  I remember curling bonspiels.  I remember toothbrushes in our stockings and Christmas candies and oranges.

Until this year, Christmas has just kinda happened around us.  This year we are active participants in activities and gift giving. (Birthdays have been the same way.) Until this year, I haven't wanted to make our own traditions.  Thankfully we've been able to carry over some things from our childhood and that's made Christmas special for the kids.

Everyone gets the excitement and the fun this year (except for Matty).  Rayna was so young last year that it was just confusion to her.  This year will be different.  Next year will be even better!

I know Christmas is about celebrating Jesus' birth.  I don't forget that and we tell our kids that.  No one believes in Santa here; we just like to pretend.

The grief counselor at the UofA hospital in 2004 was right.  Things don't come really normal until around the 7 year mark.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,