Joy To The World!

December 25, 2011

Joy.  Joyful.  Joyous.  I think this is the best way to describe our Christmas this year.  This seems strange to me to look back and reflect on a holiday that Brian and I know as anything but relaxing.  When we finally get to church after Brian has been up for hours working and I have spent the morning getting 2 little kids dressed up and ready all by myself, we usually feel so exhausted and completely lacking in Christmas spirit.  We open no presents and spend very little time together.  I know personally I usually feel frustrated when people ask how we celebrated Christmas so far and I usually respond with "our Christmas starts as soon as church is over".  This year was no different in that regard and in fact this Christmas was far more busy than any other year.  We had my whole family over, we cooked dinner, opened presents, cleaned up, went back to church, cooked another meal, fed the homeless men that stay at our church every Sunday night, cleaned up that meal, I took the kids home while Brian slept over at church.  Not exactly relaxing!  However, looking back I wouldn't want our Christmas any other way.  I am so thankful that we have at least 1 family near us that we can spend time with.  I am thankful that the kids were so well behaved despite all that we did.  I am thankful that we had the opportunity to share our Christmas with 10 men who would normally not have any presents to open, not have a warm bed to sleep on and not have a home cooked meal.  I also think that this was an amazing opportunity to not only talk to our kids (well mostly Mikayla) about those who have less but to actually show them how to "love your neighbor".  This is one thing that Brian and I love about living in this area.  We have the opportunity to show our kids all the different people that God created.  We see and interact with people of all races, with different languages, different economic situations and different lifestyles.  We can demonstrate how to show God's love with everyone.  And what better way to spend our Christmas and to celebrate Jesus' birth than to do what Jesus did on a daily basis.  So this Christmas, though extremely busy and at times stressful, was a day filled with immense joy.