Every year I plan to keep it simple. Just as we like to imagine that first Christmas.
Of course, in keeping with that first Christmas, I decided I liked the idea of a manger as part of our decorations this year.
DH willingly volunteered.
That was our first mistake. What should have been an easy project became harder because I wanted him to be creative and know just what I pictured without me having to draw copious diagrams or resort to Google and he wanted to make it to my specifications except that I didn't know what those specifications were.
But it turned out great. (Even if I have plans for an even bigger one next year.)
My next mistake was the gift list. Son#4's fiancée's family has a tradition that they make gifts to give at Christmas time. While I love the idea I had left it rather late to plan and execute, thus causing myself additional stress (although not as late as Son#4 whom I believe hasn't started making his gift yet). But, happily, for myself and our marriage, I managed to make the gifts I'd decided upon - just not everyone is getting a homemade gift this year.
Which left me nothing to do but go shopping. And it seemed most reasonable to do all the shopping in one day.
Biggest mistake number three. Yesterday we made a trip to "the big smoke" where we spent exactly three and a half hours (it felt at least twice that long) Christmas shopping for as many of those that we could who were on this particular list. I was reminded just a short time into the expedition why I hate shopping so much, why I don't like Christmas crowds, and why I hate shopping with DH although I do value his opinion. It probably didn't help that as well as having a large number of Christmas gifts to buy we also had three birthday gifts on that list as well - including one rather critical birthday gift since it was The Most Adorable Granddaughter#7's birthday that day!
As it turned out, she was more interested in the cake and in asking her mummy to put something on the candles (i.e. flames). Oh to be three again and to delight in the simple things of life.
Which, after all, was what this blog post was to be about … keeping Christmas simple. But somehow in our planning and expectations and materialism and me-ness we make it more complicated than we should. Or perhaps, we've tricked ourselves into believing something that isn't the whole truth. Perhaps only some aspects of that first Christmas were simple (at least in the way that we understand simple).
The accommodation. The shepherds. And a mother lying her newborn son in a manger.
But other aspects were full of stress and tension … what we would nowadays term "complicated".
An unmarried mother in a culture where such actions could see her stoned. A census. A tiring journey. No reservations. Unexpected visitors from afar with strange tales and gifts. A king who orders that all the babies under two years of age be killed. Fleeing to a foreign land.
Perhaps that first Christmas was both simple and complicated … and perhaps it does us well to remember all of it - the simple and the complicated - from the announcement to a young girl by an angel to the heavenly host appearing to shepherds in the fields at night to the religious leaders who failed to recognise that the Messiah had been born to the hurried and unplanned flight to another country.
Whether our Christmas is simple or stressful or a bit of both, let us search for the Christ Child in every moment and worship Him.
Of course, in keeping with that first Christmas, I decided I liked the idea of a manger as part of our decorations this year.
DH willingly volunteered.
That was our first mistake. What should have been an easy project became harder because I wanted him to be creative and know just what I pictured without me having to draw copious diagrams or resort to Google and he wanted to make it to my specifications except that I didn't know what those specifications were.
But it turned out great. (Even if I have plans for an even bigger one next year.)
My next mistake was the gift list. Son#4's fiancée's family has a tradition that they make gifts to give at Christmas time. While I love the idea I had left it rather late to plan and execute, thus causing myself additional stress (although not as late as Son#4 whom I believe hasn't started making his gift yet). But, happily, for myself and our marriage, I managed to make the gifts I'd decided upon - just not everyone is getting a homemade gift this year.
Which left me nothing to do but go shopping. And it seemed most reasonable to do all the shopping in one day.
Biggest mistake number three. Yesterday we made a trip to "the big smoke" where we spent exactly three and a half hours (it felt at least twice that long) Christmas shopping for as many of those that we could who were on this particular list. I was reminded just a short time into the expedition why I hate shopping so much, why I don't like Christmas crowds, and why I hate shopping with DH although I do value his opinion. It probably didn't help that as well as having a large number of Christmas gifts to buy we also had three birthday gifts on that list as well - including one rather critical birthday gift since it was The Most Adorable Granddaughter#7's birthday that day!
As it turned out, she was more interested in the cake and in asking her mummy to put something on the candles (i.e. flames). Oh to be three again and to delight in the simple things of life.
Which, after all, was what this blog post was to be about … keeping Christmas simple. But somehow in our planning and expectations and materialism and me-ness we make it more complicated than we should. Or perhaps, we've tricked ourselves into believing something that isn't the whole truth. Perhaps only some aspects of that first Christmas were simple (at least in the way that we understand simple).
The accommodation. The shepherds. And a mother lying her newborn son in a manger.
But other aspects were full of stress and tension … what we would nowadays term "complicated".
An unmarried mother in a culture where such actions could see her stoned. A census. A tiring journey. No reservations. Unexpected visitors from afar with strange tales and gifts. A king who orders that all the babies under two years of age be killed. Fleeing to a foreign land.
Perhaps that first Christmas was both simple and complicated … and perhaps it does us well to remember all of it - the simple and the complicated - from the announcement to a young girl by an angel to the heavenly host appearing to shepherds in the fields at night to the religious leaders who failed to recognise that the Messiah had been born to the hurried and unplanned flight to another country.
Whether our Christmas is simple or stressful or a bit of both, let us search for the Christ Child in every moment and worship Him.
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