The Christmas Season

Okay, y’all, Christmas is probably my favorite season of the year. I know another one of my posts speaks about autumn or fall or whatever term you use to describe the season before the winter as being a favorite of mine. I use the terms fall and autumn interchangeably depending on the topic and wording of the post I am writing.

Anywho, I do love the autumn/fall, but I really love the Christmas season as well. Although, technically, Christmas isn’t a season, but rather a time of celebration during the winter season. In essence, I guess you could say I love the celebrations during the winter season.

Okay, I typically love any reason to celebrate! So….let’s get busy celebrating!

I grew up with the whole month of December as a celebration. We readied our surroundings for Christmas right after Thanksgiving which means the tree was put up and decorated, outdoor lights promptly strung and Christmas decor was set about in its’ given location, Christmas music in our ears or Christmas shows playing on the tv, stockings were hung and shopping was well underway. I didn’t grow up in a religious home so our celebrations didn’t include much religious tradition. We knew the story of Jesus and what Christmas meant in the world of religion, but we lived and celebrated more secularly….from what I can remember anyway.

It wasn’t until I met my husband that religion really became a bigger part of my life and honestly, the importance of it to me is still probably questionable. But knowing that about myself, I have truly always wanted for and tried to give my own children that foundation. My husband grew up in a Catholic home and I have truly witnessed the benefits of such upbringing. And, from the bottom of my heart, I want my children to know, live and believe how important their faith is now, but also when they are gone. Sadly, I fail at this most of the time, I think.

Ooh, but I am veering way to off topic! So, what is the topic, exactly.?

Well, for the month of November, we celebrated by engaging in the 30 days of grateful. However, that’s not to say we shouldn’t be grateful every day, but the point was to clearly define something we were grateful for each day in order to appreciate small things that happen in our days that typically get overlooked.

And for the month of December, I would like to do something similar. No, not just listing something we are grateful for, but each day, offering a new topic of discussion, an act of kindness, or through sharing a family tradition that in some way grows us in our celebrations or positively impacts the greater good through the Christmas season. The whole point is to know what it means to live selflessly and try to do so in small steps.

Honestly, as individuals and as a society, we have grown into a very selfish people. Todays’ way of living involves the gratification of seeking more, more, more, but giving less, less, less.

For today, I’d like to tell of something special that I witnessed recently that really just hit me on a different level. It tugged my heartstrings in a way that hasn’t happened in quite a minute. As I have mentioned a few times, my husband and I along with our children made a lifestyle change over the summer. We lived in a camper on the land the my husband grew up on. We made this choice for many reasons. Anywho, winter came and weather got cold so we have moved into the house with his parents until spring, thus we share evening meals with them.

As we sat down for supper, we bowed our heads to pray as we do every night. Afterwards, we talked of our day engaging with the children about their school day. After that part of the discussion, the topic moved on to an accident (which resulted in death) that had occurred in a family that my husband’s family knew through the years. The family happened to be a family that my mother-in-law knew from her childhood. When my husband informed her of what happened to this family, her breath caught. Honestly, I cannot aptly even explain the horrified look on her face and the catch in her breath as she put her face into her hands. I could tell she had teared up, if not crying into her hands, but I knew she was praying for that family. I watched in awe as she held her face in her hands for a quite a minute.

Witnessing her reaction did two things to my heart:

• First, it brought back the very moment and the following minutes/hours/days after the death of my own child 4 1/2 years earlier. It was the middle of the night, 3 a.m. to be exact, so we were woken from dead sleep and when I received the news, I crumpled in tears and shock on the steps leading into the dining room.
• Second, I’ve known since the beginning, after first meeting my husband’s family, that she is a religious woman. However, she’s very reserved and does not flaunt her religion to others. This is not to say that she doesn’t encourage others to believe in all that Jesus is and the sacrifice He made for all of us. She very much encourages people. But, her reaction I witnessed was so much deeper. I know she prays for everyone. She prays for her family, her friends, and strangers alike. She prays for the crazy world we live in. She prays for all the things in and out of our control. She prays for all the goodness and all the evil in the world. She always prays privately, though. For her to bow her head, head in hands, right there in that moment without privacy was beautiful. And as I watched her in awe, I realized I would really love to have that kind of faith.

So, what is something small that you can give/do today that will change you or that can be a stepping stone to a change you want to see around you?

Come on, y’all start sending those responses! I can’t wait to hear from you!

See y’all back here tomorrow!