Christmases

Every Christmas is a little different, and this year is certainly no different for me. Church, family, weather, etc.--changes in any of these affect the whole mix. Let alone changes within all of them!

This is my second go-round "first-time" at a church. The first year is no so much the hardest, it's just the most disorienting. Everyone else knows the little details, and it takes time to learn those. Silly mistakes are apt to happen since knowledge of things are merely intellectual, passed-on, not experienced. For example, yesterday I sent an e-mail telling everyone the Christmas Day service is in the chapel. It's not. It's in the sanctuary. Simply but unnecessary mistake, born of having a ton of details racing around in my head and not enough space in my brain to sort them quickly enough!

The disorientation aside, it's also exciting. Very exciting. Though the build-up to Christmas Eve has seemed a bit quiet to me--mostly, I think, due to snow forcing the cancellation of our Sunday services--we've been busy this week, and I think, I hope, all is ready. I don't have a whole lot to do DURING the services (which is itself a bit disorienting), but I'm looking forward to being part of it all.

Like any first-time, perhaps getting through, and enjoying as much as possible, is all one can expect. Next year this will all be familiar, lived-through experience, and a bit more natural to me. For now, I'm trying to slow down, enjoy the process, and try to keep everything straight! 24 hours from now, we'll see how that went!

It's also interesting to be in that in-between phase of married but no kids yet. What is the appropriate Christmas practices for such a couple? Chris and I are still figuring that out, and it changes each year. Our trip to Europe is our Christmas gift to each other (slippers would be nice, the Eiffel Tower is definitely better), but we have been busy picking out gifts for family. Our tree is up, and living room fairly well decorated, but I never quite got around to the rest of the house. As a young adult, I have yet to match the early-morning Christmas wake-up on my childhood, and I suppose I grew to associate fatigue with Christmas morning a bit too much :-)

I suppose most of all, this Christmas has seemed a bit slower paced, a bit calmer. that's not a bad thing, it's just different than most I've had. I have no doubt the frenetic pace I once knew will return soon enough. And perhaps I've already grown so used to it that what others may call frenetic is normal for me...like I've built a resistance to it. Who knows.

All that said, if there is any day that remain hectic for me, it is and will always be Christmas Eve. I've got some more ribbons to finish for the youth for the 7 pm service, then Chris and I will load up tubs of cupcakes, and random other things we need and then head into church for the long and busy haul of four services. How completely wonderful!