Bathrobe Christmas

I am in the midst of a hauling out the holly and putting up the tree and remembering every Christmas that has ever gone before. It's funny how setting the scene brings you back so many years, through so many celebrations, always stopping at all of my favorite memories. The Christmas I got the doll that could walk and talk. It was not a comfortable doll, hard plastic and funky hair but I thought she was fabulous. The Christmas that I opened all my gifts, always such a bummer when you got to this stage, only to discover I had another gift I had been leaning against and didn't realize. It was a sled and I was a very happy camper.


I think about the year my oldest had his first Christmas. Unfortunately, he had fallen from a step and hit his head and in everyone of his pictures he has this huge black and blue mark on his head. I remember picking the child up and going up the steps to the apartment and looking at his head when I reached the top of the steps and he had a huge lump. I said the same thing every single medical person said when they say it. 'Oh my!'. I remember the second born's first Christmas where he had a cold and ear infection and the reddest eyes you have ever seen. Just ruined all of the pictures!

I remember the Christmas we were snowed in. That maybe my all time favorite Christmas. I was recovering for a nasty bout with the flu and the snow kept me in and gave me a lot of recovery time. The family sat in front of a fireplace and watched movies and drank hot tea and hot chocolate. The snow was so deep we were snowed in for days and getting out was not an option. So all the outside activities were cancelled and no one could get to us, so we just stopped and enjoyed.

Then there was the Christmas when on the way home from church our windshield wipers quit functioning in a major storm. We often went to see lights on the way home from family worship but not that night. It was all we could do to see to get home. Or the Christmas when I was expecting my first born in January and went to stay at my parents home on Christmas Eve because it was so cold we were sure the car would never start.

There was also the Christmas when we bought all the toys and put them in the attic and promptly forgot them and panicked on Christmas Eve. Ran out to buy stuff and the kids got so much that they asked for a break in the middle of opening presents.

There has almost always been church on Christmas Eve. In my high school years I sang in the choir and we would have early worship then a party at the organist's home and then 11 o'clock candlelight service. I loved this way of celebrating. So much so that we will pick up the tradition this year and invite folks over for a party in between worship services. When the kids were very little there was no worshipping at 11, they were in bed and I was still wrapping gifts. Still we almost always worshipped together earlier in the evening on Christmas Eve, as a part of our tradition. I remember a Christmas Eve worship when the boys were small and Dad was at sea for Desert Storm. We went to Pittsburgh to celebrate with my family. We worshipped on Christmas Eve at the same church I grew up in, where I sang in the choir. The children's sermon was excellent and they did something during it with warm water and capsules that grew into animals. My kids loved the animals! I did too.

I am looking forward to Christmas again. May this years memories be sweet and the blessings God recalls for us remind us just exactly how great God is.