'Twas the week before Christmas

Let's catch up on a few things:

Christmas is one week away. We are finished shopping. Neener, neener.

Our gift to ourselves this year was the purchase of a new digital camera. One of these days soon, my gift to you (dear readers) will be to re-figure out how to upload pictures to this currently text-only blog.

But, that gift doesn't require shopping, so my first statement still stands. Neener, neener.

The Y team is 2-0 after an impressive win last Saturday. I don't remember the score. The boys didn't shoot the ball very well, but they didn't turn it over as much as the first week and they worked it around for some better looks (even if they didn't fall), so progress was made. We are on holiday break until January now.

We would be going to the Point of Grace concert this evening if Shane would have gotten on the ball and ordered tickets earlier...(before it sold out). Bad Shane.

I enjoy the brainstorming of what to get people. I enjoy the shopping. I enjoy the parties. I enjoy the vacation from work. I do not enjoy the wrapping (I believe I've shared that here before...) Fortunately, Alice takes care of that. Lucky Shane.

I'm tired of all of the moaning about "Happy Holidays" vs "Merry Christmas", how about you? We have taken an originally secular holiday (the celebration of winter solstice), given it a religious spin (Jesus' birth, which most scholars would agree was probably not exactly this time of year), added a heaping dose of commercialism, materialism and greed (just look at the ads in your newspaper today), and then want to act indignant and boycott particular stores when their employees don't call it by the term we prefer? Hmm.

My cat was born sometime in early December, 1998, on some farm. Since I don't know the exact day, I am free to celebrate it any day of my choosing (if I were given to celebrating a cat's birthday, but that's a different story).

Jesus was born some 2,000+ years ago in a barn. Since I don't know the exact day, I choose to join others in celebrating it on December 25. That doesn't make that day any more right than another, but I am happy to celebrate on that day none-the-less. The exact day is unimportant, but the event was all-important. For if there was no birth, there could be no death, no resurrection, and no hope for man. I think that's worth picking a day and celebrating.

With each gift opened that day, I can choose to see dollar signs or I can be reminded of a Gift that was given to me one day before I was even born.

With each tree I sit around, I can gripe about it being fake or I can be reminded of the tree that lifted Him up to die.

With each light that shines on our house, I can choose to complain about how often I have to change burned out bulbs (and they're always the ones at the top of the ridge) or I can be reminded of the light of the world that came down into our darkness.

Things only have as much meaning as you choose to assign to them. Communion is either Matzos and Welch's grape juice, or it is the body and blood of the Savior. It's up to you. December 25 can be about presents, decorations, and debt, or it can be about gifts, hope, and salvation. It's up to you.

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays, too.