It’s Christmas Eve! Already. How did it get here so quickly? I LOVE this day…almost as much as tomorrow. I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas Eve!

(1) As a child, we always attended Christmas Eve services at church every year. It was always so festive and really prepared our hearts for the coming Child. That tradition continues today. As a matter of fact, we’re attending two services today – one at our home church, and we’re also taking my mother and grandmother to a service at my mother’s church later this evening.

(2) One of the funniest stories that gets told about me as a child happened on Christmas Eve – many years ago. When I was still a wee thing (but wanted to be older than I was), I was allowed to hold the candle during the Christmas Eve candlelight service. All of sudden, my mother smelled something burning. She looked around trying to determine where the smell was coming from and then shockingly looked at me and noticed my burning hair was creating that smell! No harm done – just a little fried hair. 🙂

(3) When I was in the 6-8 year range, we used to go to a neighborhood open house after the candlelight service. There were always so many people there, and to this day – I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much food in one place in my whole life. Yummy!

(4) In our family growing up, we would open stockings on Christmas Eve and our gifts on Christmas Day. Yes – Santa would come twice to our house – once on Christmas Eve while we were at church (I still haven’t figured that one out) and then again on Christmas morning.

(5) In more recent years, we began a tradition of allowing everyone to open one gift on Christmas Eve – pajamas! We wear them to bed and then wake up picture ready on Christmas Day!

I pray this finds you feeling very blessed in spite of any difficult circumstances you may be facing this year. Please take time to reflect on the greatest blessing that we’ve ever received – the One whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow!

Be blessed this Christmas dear friends!

I have a small confession to make…I have not been very joyful today. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, but I was anything but. Sadly, I have waited until the last minute to finish my Christmas shopping this year. Life simply got in the way, and I never seemed to find the time to get it all done.

So, here I am on December 23 – scavenging the stores for those last minute gifts and stocking stuffers. The day began rather well, and I was actually feeling pretty good about my attitude. But, as the day went on – the crowd grew, and my attitude quickly changed. You see – shopping is always a chore for me. I’m not a shopper. Yes – I’m a woman, but shopping is just not my thing. If I could buy everything online, I would, but it’s just not that easy sometimes. Secondly, I’m very claustrophobic – especially in crowds. So, what does NON SHOPPER + CROWD CLAUSTROPHOBIA + DECEMBER 23 SHOPPING equal? An almost MELTDOWN!!! Keep in mind, I said almost. Whenever I felt I was on the verge, I created a series of mental images of my family on Christmas morning opening their stockings and gifts in a warm home with plenty of food to eat. On the other side of that image was a starving and thirsting child in Africa that I could easily picture from my years of following the African hunger plight. This child will more than likely never experience anything remotely close to a Christmas morning experienced all over the developed world. Then, I was ashamed that I allowed myself to get all bent out of shape over having to shop on December 23 when I should feel privileged to even have the resources to begin with. With the meltdown quickly averted, I went about the little “chore” a bit longer. It wouldn’t take long before those anxious feelings would creep back up, and then I would force those contrasting mental images to reappear. This went on all day long. But, you know what? It worked! I made it successfully through the day. I finished my shopping (minus one little item that I will go after early tomorrow morning). And besides…the shopping is certainly not what CHRISTmas is about anyway.