It's an odd thing, but I usually feel inspired to write when I am otherwise also busy. I get into my hyper-production mode, and it becomes another thing I want to do. This week, I'm getting ready for Christmas: Baby's first, and my second one as the host for my family's side of the festivities. I have a few guiding principles: keep it fun (not all fancy and stressful), keep it simple (in terms of gifts, especially for the kids, but also for the adults, who have most of what we need or want), eat well (a good time to pull out favorites), and don't forget the God who's behind it all.
To keep it fun, we potluck. This year, my mother-in-law is even doing the main dish, which leaves me sooo much more freedom to work around the baby and still get sleep. I'm doing several different items, and each other family member is bringing (or has brought, in the case of my mom and her MANY beverage options!) a contribution to the menu. This year we went with a French theme, but I'm veering toward the simple items for my stuff. We're having a provencal soup (can we say I love my crockpot?), and simple salad (seriously, I think it has 4 items), and a mousse for dessert (I can make it the day before). For appetizers, I'm setting out crudites (which are essentially overnight marinated cold veggies), some baked brie with apples and bread, and chocolate truffles my mom brought already. I love it already, and I can't wait to taste it all. And fortunately, my hubbie will be my sous chef, as he is expert in all things chopping and prepping. Now...what to serve my little one?
To keep it simple, we're continuing our new tradition of an adult secret Santa. Everyone buys one gift for one other adult... And even then, it can be so hard to figure out what to get! We are blessed with such abundance... and we really don't need to go overboard getting more things. I even like that this curbs my own greed. When I start to think of a list of all sorts of unnecessaries that I would like, I remember that even with James' gifts (we do a little nuclear family exchange separately) and my in-laws family Christmas, I'm not getting much. And that's good! If I really need it, I will buy it, or save for it. Or I'll remember that the things that matter most aren't bought to begin with.
Eating well... kind of covered in the one earlier. Just because I'm not gonna kill myself over the food doesn't mean it won't taste good. :)
As for remembering God... we don't have many established corporate traditions. That's kind of funny to me. J and I have usually gone to our church's Christmas Eve service (sometimes on Christmas Eve's eve!) And I usually read some of the Scriptures about Christ's birth for myself, and sometimes with James. But I've been thinking more about how I want this to be an intentional part of our celebration, too. That especially comes into focus when I contemplate how the patterns we set now will be how B will experience Christmas as he grows up. This is only his first Christmas, and he probably won't remember it except through pictures. But I hope that when he looks back in his twenties, he'll remember that our family celebrated Jesus at Christmas, not just presents or even family. So, I think it would work to have one of the family read the Christmas story just before dinner, when everyone is seated together. Now I'm wondering if I'll use a kids' book to make it simpler for them, or if we'll go with the regular Bible story. But altogether, I'm hoping for something that allows us all to go a bit deeper together into the way the real First Christmas changed the world.
Does anyone else have good spiritual traditions their family shares for Christmas?
But I have to end with a funny anecdote I heard at work... A woman was telling her son, now about 2 and 1/2, about Jesus' birth, and he listened through the whole thing as she explained that all of the Christmas celebrations developed to celebrate his birth. Once she was done, she asked if he understood a little more about Christmas, and he said, really thoughtfully, "I think so. So.... I'm Jesus?"
