Miscellaneous Writings

Quiet Christmas

My Christmas 2015


I don't know why Christmas seemed to sneak up on everyone this year, but it sure did. Every year I tell myself that I'm going to be so organized and ahead of everything the following year. I think I get less and less organized as the years go on. Maybe by the time I'm a grandparent I'll have it all together.

For us I think it was a combination of things that got us so behind. Since we live paycheck to paycheck that's one hurdle that keeps us a bit behind. Then it happened to be raining Thanksgiving weekend so we weren't able to decorate outside. My house was a complete pig's sty so we had to clean before we could decorate inside. The following weekend my husband was out of town so that put us off one more weekend to decorate outside. We used that weekend to hang out and relax and finish cleaning up the house to decorate. Finally three weekends after Thanksgiving we were able to get our outside decorations up. It was so late we didn't put out everything we usually do.

We have two new kittens we've had for a few months and they kept us from putting out many decorations inside. We were only able to decorate the upper half of our Christmas tree because, as my husband put it, the cats were playing tether ball with the ornaments. Because of the cats we didn't put down our tree skirt and presents until Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas festivities typically include a Christmas parade, a trip to view the huge local light display called The Way of Lights, and a night out to watch the St. Louis Symphony at Powell Hall in St. Louis, Missouri.

This year we went to the Symphony. That's it. We didn't get to one parade or even out to see the Christmas lights display, which usually has a petting zoo and camel and donkey rides. We would typically buy some hot chocolate after feeding the animals and occasionally go inside and look at the Christmas trees decorated like those in other countries.

But our visit to the Symphony didn't disappoint. The Powell Hall is absolutely beautiful to begin with, but when Christmas decorations are added it becomes exquisite. My daughter's best friend sings with The St. Louis Symphony Holiday Festival Chorus and it was lovely to watch. Santa made an appearance near the end of the program and kids can visit with him before and after the show, of which my children have never wanted to partake.

We blinked and Christmas was done. It's the same every year, but it went by especially quicker this year. It took longer to wrap the present than it did for Christmas to last.

Don't think for a minute that I didn't enjoy every flashing moment. I always enjoy being able to buy things for my family that they really want and will enjoy. But my most favorite part was going to Christmas Eve services. My oldest daughter can't stand church and we don't go on a regular basis, but I know I can get the whole family in church on Christmas. It's usually a good time.

Christmas day started for us about seven-thirty when our ten year old woke us up. Her sister was surprisingly easy to get up when she went to wake her. She still gets excited about Christmas at sixteen. That makes me happy because I know what it feels like to lose the Christmas spirit. It took a while for my old, creaky body to get moving but eventually we got to see everything Santa had delivered. Then we moved on to the gifts we bought and wrapped for each other.

The kids got almost everything they wanted. My sixteen year old didn't get a couple of CDs she wanted but she got some Visa cards she can use to purchase them! The youngest got a computer to replace her little Chromebook and the oldest got a Polaroid instant camera. I had to order the picture paper online because the stores didn't have them. Unfortunately it wasn't available at the time and I'm hoping to get it later in January. I even went to the Polaroid website to try and purchase directly from the company, but it took me to Amazon which is where I purchased the paper to begin with.

I got a nice new coat and some boots along with a planner and a book of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales. Maybe that will be a source of inspiration for me.

So we're all relaxing and enjoying our Christmas Day. Soon we'll be eating a wonderful Christmas dinner and will fall into slumber knowing how much we are loved and how much God loved us.