That spirit of Christmas
For being with the ones we love
Sharing so much joy and cheer
What a wonderful feelin'
Watching the ones we love
Having so much fun
It was different, this year's Christmas. My first year of feeling it in a long time, and the feeling led to actually living it and breathing it in and as the festivities died down on Christmas day I gazed all misty-eyed toward the heavens and thanked the Lord for this heart swollen with joy.
The season was everything it should have been. Both boys singing carols with their classmates at the school's Christmas party, Aden playing a shepherd at the church nativity play, cheering our beloved Golden Eagles basketball team on to an amazing 7-2 start, eating waaaaay more than we should, counting down the days, then hours, then minutes to go-time.
Breakfast was yummy, and I applaud the boys for finishing their meal before everyone else even had a plate, then sitting silently while the grownups told stories and grazed at their food. Though I think Poppop and Granddad got the side eye when they went back for seconds.
At long last, we descended into a basement loaded down with so many gifts there was barely a place to sit. What a blessing, the love that makes us all want to give so much. Also a blessing, two not-so-little fellows shrieking with excitement over games and Legos and Bey Blades and gift cards, oh my. All was right with the world.
Taking a walk through the snow
Listening to a children's choir
Singing songs about Jesus
The blessed way that He came to us
Why can't it remain
All through the year
Each day the same
That's what I wanna hear
It's truly amazing
That spirit of Christmas
A few notes to remember the season by:
Nene, I'm so thankful you came.
Aden was our lights critic, and whenever we'd pass by a house with thirty-seven illuminated plastic Santa Clauses in the yard or a mile-long rainbow of those shrub net lights strewn haphazardly wherever or a roof outlined with seizure-inducing blinking icicles, he would shout, "Overdecorated!" Every time.
Almost every piece of our Christmas decor has occupied a different place this year than last. It makes me feel like a grownup.
For the first year since maybe I was an infant, I did not watch a moment of Rudolph, Frosty, Year without a Santa Claus, or two out of three of the Santa Clause movies. And the world didn't stop turning.
I made one batch of fudge this year, from a well-worn recipe with the word "FAILPROOF" scrawled across the top in my very own handwriting. It didn't work out too well.
I made two batches of Oreo fudge and am pretty sure I will never make it again. Seriously, it's just too much.
Not to worry, I made lots and lots of new treats and on the last day of school, Brandon brought home one of those big boxes that holds reams of paper, except it was full of Christmas goodies his kids had made for him. My counters disappeared for a week.
A new tradition seems to have taken hold. For the nth year in a row, we went to the city on the 23rd to walk among the hustle and bustle. The lights, Christmas music blaring, people all over the place with bags draped across their arms, it gives me a warm fuzzy. And takes me back a bit to my precious nineties when the mall was like that all the time.
Anyhow, Christmas was a beautiful thing, togetherness and fun and remembering the strange and wonderful story of a baby born among animals, coming for us because we couldn't get to Him, driven by His great love for a human race that would drive nails into His hands and feet. And we can rejoice at Christmas because that sweet baby wouldn't be defeated after all. He is alive.
Tonight, New Year's Eve. We will gather with our friend-family to continue the celebration of the season, a realization so deep of how very blessed we are that we can't help but whole-face smile. We'll laugh and eat and play embarrassing board games and yell at the kids to keep it down and share resolutions and give big hugs as the ball drops down. Because that just seems like the best possible reaction to being blessed.
A heart full, indeed. Happy New Year.
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