Let the Insanity Begin!!

It's Thanksgiving week, which means it's the first week of Christmas!!

"Christmas" is too big to be merely contained merely in December 24 and 25th. As a matter of fact by the time those dates roll around the majority of the "Christmas" celebrations will have already been completed!

It starts now with the ads and the music (well actually those seemed to have started several weeks ago already, the day after Halloween I think). Every other commercial will show something you NEED to buy this season with the happily surprised beautiful people opening this perfect gift you've given. (Funny how they never show the long snaking lines at return counters or that " very special gift" up on the shelf in the closet...)

Then there are all the activities; the plays, the rehearsals, the concerts, the costumes, the cookie exchanges and the Secret Santas (for which of course you need a specially crafted spreadsheet on your computer to make sure you're in the right place at the appropriate time).

And let's talk about the decorating; where you magically created a 4- 6ft diameter hole in your living space in which to put up the Christmas tree. And all the other flat spaces get cleared of their normal decor to set up the holiday cheer and then for the supremely ambitious there is a second tree, or a Christmas village with the necessity of employing the Army Corps of Engineers to configure all those cords! And let's not forget about the outside as lights are strung (well first lights are untangled, or hours spent attempting to untangle them and then they’re thrown out and a trip ensues to get new lights which we swore last year would not happen because we were going to put away the lights more carefully and they would not get tangled and we’d not be doing this again...) and then they’re finally strung on bushes and high on the rooftops.

Christmas cards? Christmas picture? Clothes for family for Christmas picture? Block of time to gather all family members to take a picture? If not then how about a frantic search through the year's candid shots to find something suitable? And what about the stamps? (What do they cost now?) Did I update the missing master address list when Aunt Martha retired to Florida last year...

And then on top of all this there is the guilt of being a believer in this commercialized season. I should not be swept away by all this tradition and materialism; instead I should celebrate the true meaning of the season!

I'd heard someone talking about this on the radio and picked up a book on the topic and in it the authors have all these great ideas to keep Christ in Christmas. There were homemade ornaments, family treasure hunts, goodies for shut-in's and all kinds of great ideas. Then they talked about these prophecy boxes to use with your family, each one containing a prophecy fulfilled by Christ's birth. Twenty-five specially made, decorated and filled boxes with a devotional in each. What a lovely idea and you start on December 1st and make sure you do it
e v e r y day . . . EVERY DAY? (My kids can't even keep on top of eating a piece of chocolate out of a countdown calendar every day, how would we ever have 25 straight days of significant family devotions?)

(Sigh)

It’s Thanksgiving week, which means it’s the first week of Christmas.
But perhaps if I keep thanks giving alive through the five weeks to come I will find, in the midst of all the insanity, how to have to a joyous and Christ centered Christmas!

In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ for you! I Thessalonians 5:18


Let the thanks giving begin!!