I want the best Christmas ever, do you?

The stores are full of it, the shopping malls are decorated, it is days after Halloween and the push to think about Christmas has begun. Part of me wants to begin thinking about Christmas around December 15 th, like most of the world.  

The church we’ve been attending suggested we have the best Christmas Ever. How so? Simplify. It was suggested we could have more for His Presence if we focus less on our Presents. And this aligns perfectly with what our church in Katy is being taught about prayer. If we pay more attention to His Presence in our prayer life, and less on what presents we get from our prayers, we’ll have a richer experience with God.

So it strikes me that my two spheres of spiritual influence converge with the same message. I survey myself and check to see if I am seeking God or seeking God for what I want from him. I take long walks dissecting my intentions, hours of yoga movement to be sure I get the answer correct. I think much better when my body is in motion.

And now I have to admit “here it comes ready or not”: the Christmas season.  I sorely need to make it the best Christmas ever, because I just want to repeat last year which will be hard for us to top. We were in Uganda and on the 21^st of December we celebrated our: Gotcha Day for Kira’s adoption. That’s the day the judged ruled officially that she is ours! All of us were together on Christmas morning. There was no tree. We made decorations and baked a batch of cookies. We sang Christmas carols at the baby home where Kira spent her first nine months. We bought eachother one gift and had a festive exchange that didn’t last all day long. Then we went to Robert and Rose’s house to share a meal with their family. In my memory, it was the best Christmas ever.

This year we are in a new house and the seven of us are wondering what are we going to do to make it a special Christmas? And I’m not crazy about too many hours in the kitchen, at the mall, hauling out decorations from storage and wrapping, wrapping, wrapping. I am not sure it’s necessary for Mom to put the next two months on hold so Christmas can happen. However, I do want to somehow make it the “best Christmas ever”, because like it or not, moms are responsible for making memories for their children. That’s a part of being mom that  I enjoy.

My mom wrote and asked what do the boys want for Christmas? I had no idea. Nothing. No one around here needs anything, though somehow if pushed our list of wants could wrap around the block. It’s quite a dilemma I have here, and this is what I suspect, I’m not alone.

Anyone else drawn to a better way to do Christmas?

Yesterday I walked Kira and Lucy to get the mail. It was all catalogs of companies that are stocked with special items that are only good for giving at Christmas. I usually have all of my shopping finished by now so I am not tempted to open those catalogs.(the drama in Uganda put me way behind)  But one of them from World Vision caught my eye.  As I held Lucy on the leash and pushed Kira I propped the catalog on the bonnet of the stroller and wondered as I flipped through how fantastic it would be to give everyone on my list something from that catalog. These items for sale are farm animals that could feed needy families all over the world, or fishing kits, or funds to rescue young girls from the sex trafficking trade. Aren’t those the most valuable ways to bless someone rather than a house decoration that probably won’t find a shelf, or a toy that is novel for a day then ends up in an untouched pile? I’m thinking seriously this might be the way I go…

And for all the shopping and wrapping time we save we can give some of that time in service of the needy in our community. And what if we set a time limit on how many decorations we put up around the house? What if I draw closer to the understanding of the incarnation that Christ gave us for Christmas as a result of going left on this holiday when the world goes right?

Anyone else feeling this pull?

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