My 58th Christmas

 Christmas has come and gone for the 58th time for this scribe. I certainly enjoyed sitting in a room surrounded by Brenda, our four sons, and our daughter in law and one dog named Buster. It was a treasured time. We laughed. We celebrated the birth of our Savior. We exchanged gifts and watched mouths gape open wide in astonishment. We ate our traditional breakfast of homemade biscuits, breakfast casserole and this year added sausage gravy. We capped off the evening by playing a board game. I lost again and was not happy about it. 

As a child I would go to bed so excited on Christmas Eve I could barely stand it. When I did finally fall asleep it did not last long.  I was ALWAYS the first to wake up. Most of the time it was around 2:00 a.m. I snuck out of bed and tiptoed to the living room where I saw bright shiny toys around the tree. Some were left unwrapped. I can still see them in my mind. The action figure BIG JIM with his jeep and action toys. There were all those footballs and football uniforms. Several times I got bicycles. One year I got a gift that still haunts my memories to this day. MR. QUARTERBACK. It had a mechanical arm and a timer that would launch a pass to you. I dreamed of that toy so I could play football by myself. I broke it in the living room one Christmas morning and it never worked. I never got a pass from MR. QUARTERBACK. 

Brenda has always done a great job at surprising me. One year it was golf clubs. Another it was several watches which I still wear. This year she did it again. She got me a MY PILLOW 2.0. Mike Lindell was right. In the two nights I have used it I have had the best sleep of my life. 

A few years ago I contemplated something on Christmas morning. After the last gift was opened and everyone was sitting around mountains of wrapping paper it dawned on me. We spend a whole year waiting for Christmas to come around. People repeatedly say it is their favorite time of the year. Radio stations blast Christmas classics. TV specials run spreading Christmas cheer. People hustle from parties to shopping. Retailers rejoice at profit margins. Kids make their Christmas lists. Decorations come out and bright lights twinkle everywhere. There is so much hype around Christmas. Candlelight services, egg nog,(which I have successfully avoided trying for 58 years), looking at Christmas lights, and Christmas trees. So much hype. 

All the anticipation building toward the big day. Some count down to how many more days are left until  Christmas. Children put on Christmas plays. Choirs sing Christmas carols. Then in a flash it is over. The last gift is exchanged. Family pack up and head back home. Tanner left on Thursday. Tucker will leave on Monday. Turner will head back for his last semester of college in about a week. 

If that is all that Christmas is; family, gifts, and decorations, then it does not live up to the hype. In a flash it is over. People hustle in stores returning gifts they did not want or in exchange for the right size. All the big build up and then it ends. The same thing will happen next year I suppose. 

When Jesus really is the focus of Christmas, it lasts all year long. I am no Scrooge. I enjoy all the festivities. I just do not buy into the hype. I see how fast and hollow all of that is in comparison to an ongoing relationship with Jesus all year long. Just a few reflections from my 58th Christmas.