Hubby read my Sunday blog post, Generation to Generation. I hold my breath waiting for his opinion when I know he is reading. He is a great deal more conservative than I about what gets shared with others and what doesn’t. Believe it or not, I don’t quite let it all hang out, and dirty laundry stays safely tucked away, but I still have a lot more to say than he would prefer.
Beyond all that? His opinion is the one that really matters to me. Yes, I write for myself. Yes, I write for others. But when he likes something I write? That’s when it really matters to me.
And when he read Generation? He found a typo (that has been fixed) and said, “what about Jesus in Christmas? Doesn’t that matter?”
Yes hubby, there is Jesus in Christmas.
Honestly, when I wrote about decorating and Christmas, I was not intending to diss all of Christmas, just the glitter and glamour. I could live without a tree up in my house, I could definitely live without two months of Christmas movies on my favorite TV channel and two to three months of Christmas songs on the radio are a bit much.
Most of Christmas, I love. I love the opportunities to give that it brings out. I love Operation Christmas Child. I love taking the girls to the dollar store and filling boxes just as full as we can to send to kids around the world. I have November 17 marked on our calendar so we get our boxes done and ready to be shipped to kids who most likely will have no other Christmas.
I’m already watching our church bulletin for updates on Angel Tree. I will be picking three angels off the tree. Each has a gift listed on it for a particular child. Buying a gift for a child on behalf of their incarcerated mother or father is one way our family can be the hands and feet of Jesus.
I’m not altogether altruistic. I also love shopping for my girls. I used a gift certificate yesterday to start the process. And I am watching Facebook and Twitter for deal alerts. It is amazing what different deals people find. On-line deals tend to save me a bundle.
Beyond the gifts, I love the added freedom Christmas brings us to talk about Jesus. His name is found on Radio Stations where He is never mentioned otherwise. Churches have special concerts and programs that people are willing to come to when church is not always on their radar. I love the candlelight services at church, time to pause where we normally rush through. I love reading and talking about the Christmas story.
I love having my family to share the holiday with. I love the extra devotions we do nightly as we put the ornaments on the Jesse Tree. I am totally enamored with the fun crafts the girls and I can do, the special school studies we can draw upon.
Really, I don’t think it was a dislike of Christmas that was handed down in my family, I think it was just of the decorating and the programming changes that drag on and on. I love the warm and cozy of Christmas, just not in front of a tree.
