How has it come to this?
It is Christmas Eve and I haven’t finished my shopping?!?
I’m posting this and heading into Sechelt. I’m pretty certain the Hallelujah Chorus will not be busting forth in the middle of the Trail Bay Mall. And unless Bev or Paula throw out a rousing rendition of Feliz Navidad, there is likely to be no singing at Talewind Books either.
The IGA will be busting at the seams when I go get the groceries that missed yesterday’s list. We are hosting a small Christmas dinner for five of us tonight and the pie needs to be baked, the turkey stuffed, the cranberry sauce made and the brussel sprouts prepped.
Meanwhile, the gifts that I already have, are piled and waiting to be festooned. Considering I am uber-Mennonite in my frugality, that won’t be too big a job. I swear I have every gift bag and bow that has ever entered this house….some still enscribed with, To Kevin Love Colleen, already on them…a definite timesaver, even if the bag does have a certain over-use sheen that wasn’t originally intended.
And in spite of my panicked middle-of-the-night angst that told me I hadn’t been thoughtful enough or picked the best gift or the right thing or left it too late or any other perimenopausal anxiety soup that was swamping my synapses, I still woke with a smile because there is one thing I know (just like Oprah!) for sure…
I know for sure that I am doing exactly what I want to be doing.
How could it be otherwise? I do not have a full-time job. I have all the time to do what I need to do. So clearly I have created this little mini-drama for my own amusement.
And trust me, except for the hormonal horror in the night, I really am amused. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what these last little gifts need to be and there is something exciting about entering our little town’s bustle and resultant chaos. I feel like this is something that connects me to what Christmas is.
I think Christmas is about hope within disorder, beauty in the midst of clutter, warm pie and counters of messy plates. Christmas has candles creating creamy-gold pools against the dark, wet windows and tiny coloured lights shining brighter because of the watery diamond drops rain from our endless monsoons.
It is about imperfection and love in spite of all our oddness, or maybe even because of all our oddness and quirks.
The Christmas story is about following your star, humble beginnings and bearing gifts that come from your heart.
But most of all Christmas is about love. Loving yourself and accepting your own dramas so that you’re able to love and accept what others are about too.
Let us all practise love. I think we all know for sure that it’s the greablog gift of them all.
Merry Christmas Eve!
I did pretty well with Christmas this year, even though we had a rather sudden change of plans and ended up flying to our home in Florida instead of spending Christmas in Michigan as we usually do. It was actually fun to turn Christmas on its head for a change, and disrupt the normal pattern.
I appreciate the added air of excitement that’s part of the hustle-bustle of this season. It’s crazy sometimes, but it’s a good crazy, and gives me a sense of happy anticipation.
There is nothing I like better than turning things on their collective heads. And you really can’t go wrong with Florida…one of my favorite states to visit. Glad you’re having fun. That’s a good thing:)
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Just finished baking farmer sausage roles, a tradition in this house. A little vacuuming and then packing up some goodies for the neighbours.
We are going to a Vietnamese restaurant before church and then coming home to watch a Christmas story. David has purchased one of those famous leg lamps and is going to “deliver it” to Dan before the movie. He has been planning this for several weeks. It is funny that Dan picked Vietnamese for dinner today, but that just adds to the excitement. If you haven’t seen “A Christmas Story” you probably won’t know the significance of that. It should be fun. Tomorrow is turkey with a 91 year old friend we found a few years ago.
love
AnneLise
How perfect! Way to go David. It should be a stunning addition to your living room decor 🙂
And yes, we have A Christmas Story (that Sean rented today) for viewing tonight after we have the full-on turkey dinner. Tomorrow we head to Mission for the Friesen family turkey blowout. Looking forward to it all. Thanks for ‘dropping over’ AnneLise…Merriest of Christmases. XO
“I think Christmas is about hope within disorder, beauty in the midst of clutter, warm pie and counters of messy plates. Christmas has candles creating creamy-gold pools against the dark, wet windows and tiny coloured lights shining brighter because of the watery diamond drops rain from our endless monsoons”
Brought a tear to my eye. So true. I was thinking this morning, as I navigated the Christmas rush to purchase my Honey-Baked Ham, how we fill our homes with as much “magic” as we can during the season. Strands of gold dress the pine tree in the living room and perfectly-wrapped presents with pretty silver bows rest beneath the branches. From the trays of iced Christmas cookies to the sound of Silver Bells on the stereo, we fill our homes with a everything good. Good food. Good friends. Pretty paper and bows. Warm eggnog and a turkey roasting in the oven. Love and gratitude, and the feeling that all is well in our world.
Thanks for sharing this, Colleen. It was a perfect post for MY favorite day of the year.
Happy Holidays to you, too!
There it is. The key to everything…filling our homes with everything good. Merry, Merry Christmas Gwen, to you and yours.