Well, at least I didn’t completely skip the month of
November! I promise, to you and to myself, that I won’t go a whole month
without posting again. It has, however, been a busy month! Wedding planning,
nannying, Georbama commuting (if they can call the junction between TX, AR, and
LA Texarkana, then I’m calling the commute from Birmingham to Atlanta Georbama…
or maybe Atlantingham…)… and on top of those we have now arrived in the holiday
season!
My Thanksgiving break was great. It was made up of everything
the holiday is famous for: Turkey (my parents make the best turkey on the
planet), family (minus a few married and foreign cousins), a highly competitive
board game (We are now on the Catan bandwagon…my family just keeps getting
nerdier… I love it), and the unusually stressful construction of our 12 foot
Christmas tree. The only thing missing from one of my favorite days of the year
was my favorite person, my fiancé! I’m only reminded, however, that this is the last time we
have to spend our holidays apart. I can’t wait to start our own traditions!
With the holidays come a plethora of family traditions. I
never thought my family had that many, but after talking with some of my
friends I realized we have more than I thought.
We always play a board game when our family is
together for the holidays. It started with Balderdash and has ranged from
everything from Monopoly to Risk (and now Settlers of Catan).
My cousins and I must take a couch picture, in
other words a picture of all of us sitting on a couch in approximately age
order. It started when it was against our will and the number of people we
can now cram on a couch when we are all present is impressive.
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| The most extreme Christmas light display in Marietta, GA |
We watch dozens of Christmas movies (the whole
Lifetime library in my mother’s case), but on Christmas Eve we always watch Holiday
Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. I don’t know if you can get more classic
than those guys…
Santa did not wrap our presents. Eric and I have
argued over this because Santa wrapped his presents. I think Santa might have
gotten lazy for my house every year… I told Eric that Santa is going to be lazy
for our kids too because I’m certainly not wrapping his presents.
And finally, we eat sausage casserole for breakfast on
Christmas morning.
My favorite Christmas morning memory was actually 2 years
ago. It wasn’t my favorite because I got a really cool gift or anything; it was
my favorite because it snowed. Now this wasn’t my first white Christmas, when
you live in Minnesota its rarer to have a green Christmas. What made the snow
special was the fact that it had not snowed on Christmas in Georgia in over 100
years.
It did well to remind me that Christmas is not about presents under a
tree but about a miracle. Jesus was a miracle to a very dark world that
Christmas day. The holidays serve to remind us that God sent us the very best
gift, His complete and unending love. Therefore we should turn around and give
that love to others just as it was given to us. Snow in Georgia on Christmas
may seem like a miracle, but the biggest miracle of all is the magnitude of God’s
love.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
