Jan and I finished taking down all of our indoor Christmas decorations yesterday afternoon giving me a chance to think through this past Christmas season.
This will come as no surprise, but I loved it.
As always, it went by too fast, but we did manage to slow down and enjoy it, none-the-less.
Normally in early December, around my birthday (Dec. 11) we take a Christmas trip/Birthday trip. In the past we've been gone over a weekend. Even though this year was my 50th birthday, we decided to shorten our trip so that we would not miss any Sundays in December. A very good decision. It helped slow down the month a bit.
We enjoyed a couple of Christmas parties, one with our couples cluster and one with our staff and board.
The Sunday before Christmas Eve we had a wonder-filled worship/Christmas party. A very relaxed, informal time to hear some great stories and sing some of the classic Christmas carols, along with a visit from Santa and a petting zoo of the "nativity" animals.
Christmas Eve was spent at Grace where we experienced some powerful services. Those services are absolutely my favorite of the year (which is saying a lot!).
Christmas Day we relaxed and had dinner with our extended family in the late afternoon.
Alycia's boyfriend Corey flew in from Minneapolis on Christmas night so we had our immediate family brunch/gift exchange on the day after Christmas. It extended the holiday by a day and made for a nice, easy pace during what can be a frantic couple of days.
That night we went to Joy to see their Celebration of Lights and hit a Grace house with over 100,000 lights in their front yard!
One of the things I did this year was listen more to "sacred" Christmas music. XM radio offered a contemporary Christmas station (pop artists), a traditional (the Bing Crosby era), and a classics (choirs, orchestras). I mainly stayed with the traditional and classics. It kept me more centered on Jesus this year (although I love all of the holiday music).
All in all, a great Christmas season. We wrapped it all up at Grace today with a pancake breakfast/worship experience.
A couple days of rest and then back at it full speed.
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