Ah, Dear Friend,
We know each other well, do we not? So many years of immersion in all the folderol and all the richness of your seasonal gifts. Shall I list the ways?
- the wedding plans, midway through my senior year of college
- and all the subsequent anniversaries that got lost in the shuffle, some years more seriously than others — and there have been a lot of years, haven’t there? 48 on the 18th
- a beautiful baby girl, 2nd of 2, born on the 2nd, with big brown eyes and a deliciously feisty spirit
- choral concerts up the wazoo, every Christmas for most of my years until . . .
- we moved to Santa Barbara for me to take a pastoral position in a church without a choir. Go figure.
- writing Advent invitations for worship for about 20 years
- preaching one Sunday in Advent for about 20 years, too
- decorating the house with W-A-A-A-Y too many Christmas decorations, collected over the decades, starting with homemade delights from each of the kids and this year, adding some special ornaments from our moms’ collections
- sweating (and swearing) our way to a steady, straight fresh tree in front of the windows; it gets harder every dang year
- enjoying nativity sets collected from round the globe
- singing the songs
- reading the scriptures
- pondering the mystery
- regretting the over-spending
- enjoying the gift-giving
- collapsing on the 26th, exhausted but generally, more than content
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with you, I must admit. The candlelit service on Christmas Eve gets me every time. But the lugging of bins, the setting up the stuff, the overkill with gifts — yeah, that has gone above and beyond what is needful and what is healthy at points.
So, December, what’s it gonna be? Will we find our way to a happy medium this year? Just enough of the good stuff and a little less of the not-so-good?
I pledge to do my part. Can you say the same?
Fondly,
Diana
This post is written in response to a prompt from Elora Nicole at her fabulous Story Sessions site. If you would like a series of thoughtful, evocative writing invitations, if you would enjoy being connected with a smaller (but ever-growing) group of other writers, may I suggest you check this site out? Just click here to read all about it.