Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

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Favorite things of this very moment (10:13 am CST):

• Having just put my 3rd dose of meds in my system and knowing that this is taking the Strep and the pain of this whole past week out of my system...finally
• Getting into my email today and seeing an email from the tall one when I've barely spoken to him in almost 3 weeks now
• Feeling the ache slowly fade into the feeling of a bruise constantly being poked at instead of the throbbing pain of a new wound that aches with every beat of your heart
• Nikky's latest draft of "Somewhere in the Middle"
• Tyler Hilton
• Christmas lights
• Watching the snow fall and knowing my brothers will be the ones clearing off my car because they're trying to keep me healthy
• That my car door actually opened right away this morning...miracle of miracles
• Knowing I'll be going to work today for the first time in a full week
• Kleenex
• Trying to understand all the dreams I've had lately
• My beautiful rainbow colored slipper-socks that I bought myself last week...the day I got sick actually...ha.
• Knowing Christmas is only two short days away

What can you say? The snow is falling and it's beautiful today. Today has all the individuality of a snowflake, but little of the cold. Today is a stack of presents under the tree with all the mystery that lies with them. Today is dancing in the living room in your pj's and socks when it's already late morning and you still haven't accomplished anything.

Today is 2 days before Christmas. Two.

Life has a funny way of moving even when you can't do anything. I have been sick since last Tuesday. A full week of my life spent between my bed and the couch feeling like my eardrums were going to explode and eating enough to make my stomach stop clawing at me, but not enough to ever feel satisfied. Enough soup involved to make me think soup will be avoided if possible for awhile. A week in which I did barely any reading and watched more movies and TV show seasons than I dreamed possible. A wasted week.

But life moves.

I did manage to go to church on Sunday. It was beautiful. My dad puts together the Christmas service every year. I think it's one of the highlights of his year, and that's alright with me. He always does a wonderful job. This year he made it a walk through Bethlehem. It was beautiful. He got the little ones involved, had a group of guys sing, just involved a whole bunch of people in the service that aren't normally involved. It was beautiful. Everything just focused back to the wonder of the season. The wonder of little ones and how amazing the Christmas story really is. Especially when you look at it through the eyes of a child. Just think about Christ's birth and the angels and the shepherds. Everything is so incredible and amazing, but all too often we stop thinking about the beauty and wonder of the season and of Christ's miraculous birth. Instead we get swept away in the commercialism of the season.

The Charlie Brown Christmas special is my favorite for this very reason. Everyone so caught up the in the commercialism of the season, and then you have Linus come out on the stage and tell you exactly what Christmas really is all about: Good news of great joy which shall be to all people.

Shouldn't that be our focus? The beauty of the fact that we were given a small baby who grew to be the savior of the world. Who was God's love personified and given to all of us?

Isn't that amazing?

So spread the joy and the love today. Have yourself a merry little Christmas, my friend. Find something little (or big) to do for someone else today. Clean off someone's car for them. Shovel someone's walk. Make someone some cookies. Send a friendly note. Do the dishes or the laundry. It doesn't have to be big or fancy, just make sure you spread a little love today. Those little things are what make everything worthwhile.

With all my love, I wish you the merriest of merry Christmases (especially if I don't make it on this again before Christmas). May it be full of love, life, joy and all the beauty your heart can contain. And maybe even a little magic. :)