For at least a full solid month I’ve been planning. Planning the dinner, planning the gifts, planning the traditions and the memories to be “made”. With all of that planning, things were sure to go smoothly, right??
Wrong.
I planned to make my husband’s favorite Christmas meal of prime rib. Nevermind the fact that I’ve never ever made prime rib and really wasn’t sure about all of the details. It seemed about right when the meal took about an hour and a half longer to finish cooking than I had planned, thereby leaving us having a late dinner. And for a family that has dinner at 6:00 pretty much every night, an 8:00pm dinner time was not something that went over well. Add to that the fact that we had my parents over for what was supposed to be a special night, and now I feel even more guilty for having guests who are waiting around for food to hit the table.
Next up – a house shaking thunderstorm that took our power from us at 7:20am. Power which we did not get back until three hours later. So, instead of a fun laughter-filled Christmas morning, we had a dark house with no heat and a cranky mommy. Because, you know, without power, the trusty old Keurig won’t make the coffee. L
Mommy also woke up with a severe sinus headache that looks as though it might be a cold.
Daddy was upset because Mommy couldn’t seem to get into the Christmas spirit.
Kids are bummed out because they can’t open gifts.
Where is the magic?!?! Where is the Christmas spirit?!?! Where is the peace?!?!
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2: 11
The spirit of Christ was here all along. He has been here since the beginning of time. It just takes a little faith to feel his presence. And, I’m sad to say that this morning, my faith was in short supply. It felt as though everything that could go wrong WAS going wrong.
But dinner did make its way to our table. And we went to bed with full bellies. That’s more than many people can say for their own Christmas Eve.
We woke up to this morning to a new day and a chance to once again praise and glorify His name. We have a chance today to influence someone else and possibly point them to God.
We are fortunate that there were individuals who were willing to forsake Christmas morning with their own families in order to work outside in the cold rainy weather in order to help us restore power in our home.
And we still have so much to look forward to today. Celebrating the birth of Jesus with our family and enjoying time spent with each other.
Our Christmas started out far from the “perfect” picture I had envisioned. But perhaps my Lord was trying to teach me a lesson today. Perhaps he was issuing a gentle reminder that Christmas isn’t supposed to be picture-perfect. It’s simply supposed to be a time to remember the day that God came to reside in a human body in order to save us from our sins. He came in the form of a tiny baby, born in a manger, and despised by many who would see him destroyed. And yet, knowing the life that he would lead and the death that he would suffer, Jesus chose to be born.
Oh, how amazing is He and how blessed are we!!
Merry Christmas!!!
************ Updated ************
So, if it’s even possible, our Christmas got a little more interesting. We ended up having a WHITE CHRISTMAS in Texas!! That has happened literally one other time in the past 100 years!! Bizarre! So, after picking up my oldest daughter from her father it was very clear to us that we weren’t going to make it back home with the snow coming down like it was. The roads were getting icy and it was going to be easier to just make the drive to my mom’s house since it’s almost all interstate driving that route (whereas it’s mostly country roads going to our house). And that is why, for the first time in about 10 years, my entire family…..sisters, brother-in law, nieces and nephews, my parents, husband, and kiddos ALL spent the night at my parent’s house. Now, once upon a time my parents house was a three bedroom house. But after having 3 daughters grow up and move out, they have remodeled the home to open up several areas (read: they now only have one large bedroom and 1 small bedroom). But we made it work! It was actually kind of fun. Except that pretty much everyone had a tough time sleeping and we all woke up a little cranky this morning. 😦
In the long run, we DID end up being able to drive home this afternoon and have our family’s Christmas here. The kiddos absolutely LOVED their new gifts and not once did they ever complain about not having “a lot” of gifts to open. There were a very small number of carefully selected gifts given this year ~ and I’m very pleased to say that everyone was delighted to receive what was offered.
We are all quite exhausted (and I somehow ended up with a ridiculous head cold….ick). But in the end, our Christmas turned out lovely. Just goes to show that the Lord can turn even the most harrowing situation into one that brings him honor and glory. 🙂
Living In His Blessings 
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