Where Are You Christmas?

"Where are you Christmas, why can't I find you?  Why have you gone away?"

This song has been haunting me.  I haven't been able to feel the spirit of Christmas this year.  We aren't getting a tree, and we are not exchanging presents.  My sister wants us to come for Christmas and money is too tight, but I'm not sure that's the reason I'm feeling out of it.  So I'm focusing on "my favorite" things instead, and try to bring the spirit of the season into my heart and my home.

I love Christmas music.  In fact, I've been listening to it since the end of September.  Now I can listen to it with abandon.  It's playing everywhere and it's so great!  How can anyone feel anything but grateful and blessed and happy when listening to Christmas music?

Kevin and I are planning on doing some baking this week.  Ginger snaps, almond cherry cookies, and Russian tea cakes.  Yum!  The house will smell so good, and we can share the cookies with people we love, and induldge our sweet tooth in the process.  I'm so looking forward to it!

We put our manger scene up on the piano.  This is so special to me.  The Christmas I was preparing for my surgeries, some sweet, good-hearted friend gave this to us.  I don't know who they are, but every day one piece would arrive on our doorstep with a poem or a note about Christmas.  On the last day the stable was delivered.  When we put this together it fills me with such emotion.  That someone loved us, loved me enough to give this gift touches me deeply.  Not only the sweet individual who delivered the creche, but also my Father in Heaven who gave His Son so that I could have this wonderful life that I live.

All the Christmas movies and shows that are on now.  Some, like Charlie Brown, bring back the time when I was a little girl and first watched them, and others I remember sitting and cuddling my own precious babies while watching them.  From the Winter Warlock to the Little Drummer Boy, they each hold memories.

Christmas Light Night!  We pick a night every Christmas to go out and see all the decorated houses we can.  We have a nice dinner, then bundle ourselves up and get into the car and off we go!  We especially love to visit the Church of the Nazarene over off Fountain Avenue which has such an amazing display of music and lights that we never miss it!  When we are done, we stop off at a restaurant for pie and hot chocolate before we go back home.  I am really looking forward to Christmas Light Night this year.

Hopefully everyone else is enjoying the season and feeling the spirit.  I sure hope I can too.