‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and the children were NOT snug in their beds, but celebrating with a little Sprite spiked with gum balls (hence the blue drink Nate is guzzling, which is not, in fact, Windex).
Two spills and thousands of deep-fried calories later, each of us opened a single gift. M and I would’ve given into the kids opening a few more because there were so many presents spilling out from under our tree this year.
I wrapped over fifty gifts for our family alone. Our kids are still at the age that we can pass off a Hex Bug as toy of the year. We enjoyed this stage and filled their stockings and our playroom with everything from 100-piece puzzles to a Kindle Fire for Catie.
And, oh, my goodness, all the stuff. The stuff is going to take over our house.
What were we thinking with all this stuff?
I’ll tell what I was thinking this year…and bear with me because I’m not sure this story with translate onto the blog page.
This Halloween, my neighbor (who is a Muslim) and I chaperoned the trick-or-treaters. When we got to her house, I teased her because she had Christmas lights up.
“Really?” I laughed. “Christmas lights in October?”
She laughed too but explained why she put them up. “Our big festival is in October. I put up the lights to celebrate.”
Her words stuck with me for the next couple months. Because I overthink everything in the world and analyze words that probably don’t need to be analyzed, I pondered her words. She was excited for her ‘big festival.’ She wanted the world to know she was celebrating, so she decorated her house. Twinkling lights in October were weird to me, but she was enthusiastic about them.
Despite having kids who are at a VERY ENTHUSIASTIC age, I can be so cynical about Christmas. Ugh. The lights are so much work. Yuck. The tree drips pine needles all over my house. Hurumph. The mall is so full of shoppers and germs. Ew. Everything is so commercialized for Christmas.
In the past, I’ve been a reserved celebrator. Or, yeah, cynical is probably a better word.
But this year I thought about my neighbor’s words…”our big festival.” Our family is Christian; our country is Christian. CHRISTMAS is our big festival! As I pondered that even more, the Holy Spirit worked in my heart until I wanted to spread the word.
So…we did it up with big this year. Gifts and gifts and more gifts for everyone we loved. More treats and ornaments and goodies than ever before. At Christmas Eve services, I belted out my favorite hymns thinking, “THIS is our big festival.”
Christmas 2012 will go down in the Hergenrader Family memoirs as the One With All The Presents.
Speaking of which, I’m off to clean purge the playroom.
Right after I take a nap.
