Christmas with the Craigs
Top of the day-after-all-the-Christmas-hullaballoo to you! I hope all of you had a spectacular holiday. :) I have complained about the cold since November but waking up to a white Christmas was simply wonderful. This year was a particularly wonderful year for the Craig household as our daughter finally reached the age where her adorable little head could truly wrap itself around all the meanings of Christmas. We talked about baby Jesus, Santa, giving without expecting to receive...we made trips just to see Christmas lights, we visited all kinds of malls just to see decorations, we saw Santa countless times and spent days decorating our home with three (yep...I said it...three...) Christmas trees. Every moment was absolutely spectacular to experience with an almost 5 yr. old. :) I happen to be a ginormous fan of Christmas so having a child to share it all with is just...FUN! So FUN! The "oooohs!", the "aaaaahhs!", the hundreds of moments with mouth hanging to the ground and eyes popping out of the head. Love.It.All.
And then last night my loving and doting husband, John, said to me, "Love, do you realize you created the perfect Christmas for all of us?" And then I got to lay in bed and snuggle with my Love as he described each step of the past 2 months and everything we got to do as a family in the name of Christmas: the gatherings, the shopping, the Santa visits, the food, the THREE Christmas trees, the caroling in our own living room with John playing the guitar while we all danced around like monkeys to The Apple Song (music and lyrics by John & Ella Craig)...and I simply sunk into every memory and let them all wrap themselves around me.
Every Christmas I see so many "Keep the Christ in Christmas" bumper stickers and hear story after story about how disappointed Jesus must be in all of us as he watches us shop till we drop with such fierceness that it actually, occasionally, causes death. Yes, death. For any of you that watch the news after each Black Friday, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, we over-consume, we over-fret, we overeat, we over-think, overindulge on so many levels and mostly we just plain overdo it all. But as I look back on the last 2 months I see all the of the most sugary-sweet moments I got to spend with both my husband and Ella. The moments Ella was shocked with delight over some-kind-of-Christmas something and the look of "Oh good golly I could just eat her up" shared between John and myself...priceless. And I realize, this is what Jesus would want: moments of love. Pure, yummy, delicious love. So although I don't attend church on Christmas (the Big Guy and myself have an understanding: I don't question His creation of the false sense of authority he has given to the male species, George Bush or the incredulous monthly installment of a menstrual cycle and He does the same for me regarding church attendance) I will take this moment to claim that we experienced a true sense of Spirit in this Christmas season. With each smile, hug, and statement of love. With each deep belly laugh, new discovery and addition of new traditions every year....we each show our likeness in Him.
So relax, hug each other a little harder, kiss each other a little longer and allow yourself that moment of over-love. It does a soul good. ;-)
