10 Things I Love About Christmas

My Aunt Cath posted on her blog about 10 things she loves about Christmas and I thought I would do the same to try to get into the Christmas spirit before school takes over again.

1. No school and no homework. I love being able to just be in the moment without any of the other stresses from school to get in the way. This will be my last Christmas where it's like that. Next year, I'll be working leading up to Christmas, which will definitely be a different feeling.

2. Gumdrops. My mom makes gumdrop cake at Christmas time every year. I don't like gumpdrop cake. But I LOVE gumdrops. So does my mom, my sister, and my dad. So for as long as I can remember, my mom will buy bags of gumdrops for weeks before she actually hides one bag and uses it to make the cake. So yummy!

3. Christmas hymns at church - I love them. I think it is because we only really get to sing them once a year and it is wonderful. People sing them with such jubilance and it totally stirs my heart. Love it! Love it! Love it!

4. The Christmas Eve service at Good Shepherd Community Church. I went to this church when I was a little girl, but the distance was hard so we switched to Forestbrook. Ever since, though, we have gone to the Christmas Eve service to get our "dose" of Good Shepherd. The service is pretty much the same, every. single. year.

• Rob somebody sings one of his adult contemporary songs.
• Anthea sings O Holy Night in her opera voice.
• The same old woman plays the organ and piano.
• The words to the Christmas songs are on overheads using an overhead projector (not on slides using an LCD projector).
• Jessie (who is the cutest, loveliest old Jamaican woman I have ever met) comes up to me and tells me she wants to borrow my clothes. I think she has done this since I was about 5 or 6. I used to be scared of her, but when I was old enough to realize that she wasn't actually going to take them, I loved her!
• And then at the end of the service - they turn out all the lights and give us each a single candle. Paul Johansen then stands at the front with his candle lit and says "Jesus is the light of the world". And then, he passes the light on to people in the front rows saying this as he gives them light. Then the light is passed by people around the sanctuary with everyone whispering to each other, "Jesus is the light of the world". At the end, the sanctuary is all aglow with candlelight and we sing Silent Night together, acapella. It is absolutely the most beautiful thing, every single year.

5. Sending Christmas cards. For those who know me, I LOVE sending things in the mail. LOVE IT! I try not to miss birthdays (those that I can remember or know about)... I will at least send an e-card. I send cards for all occasions - thank yous, congrats, sickness, etc. I love buying cards and stationary and finding the perfect fit for the person it is being sent to. So - Christmas just exacerbates that! AND - I LOVE receiving cards. For my birthday this year I got about 20 cards and let me tell you... it honestly made it the best birthday ever. I was so thankful. So if you want a card, even just an e-card, let me know! I'll send you the perfect one!

6. Buying gifts for James. James is so easy to buy for. He would never dislike a single thing I buy him, except when I bought him the Shrek movie for an undiscounted price. He was angry because I didn't buy it "previously viewed" for like $6.99. WHATEVER! I love buying him clothes, dvds, cologne, whatever. He loves it all and is so genuinely thankful. Makes my day for sure to know that he loves what I'm going to give him.

7. My extended family. I see my extended family at least 3 times a year - Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. It is such a mesh of different people and it grows with the significant others of those members. And when my Nana comes, she brings baked goods, including her delicious ginger snaps!! Mmmmm! Same shapes every year and boy are they delicious!

8. Stuffing. I could give or take turkey - but I know that it comes with the famous Sillanpaa (or is it a Maenpaa recipe?) stuffing. Many have tried to duplicate this stuffing (like James' sister Jen, who is a marvellous cook, but her stuffing is not my mom's stuffing!) but let me tell you, it has been best made by my mother, Grandmother, cousin Susan and of course my Aunt Eila. It is fluffy and not pasty. There are just the right amount of onions. There is sage and other delicious spices. NO mushrooms or cranberries or other things that DO NOT BELONG IN STUFFING. Just white bread crumbs and a whole lot of love! I can't wait!

9. Our Christmas tree. My parents' house has a cathedral ceiling in the family room where the tree goes. That means we can get a HUGE tree. A real one with all the good smells that come with it. We usually have to tie it to the wall using a hook because it is SO big. This tree is FILLED with memories for me because of its ornaments. Every vacation, my parents buy ornaments to put on the tree. Every year, my mom would buy my brother, sister and I an ornament for the tree as well. When we were little we would make ornaments. And I have started giving my mom ornaments as well. Some ornaments, old ones, are retired, but most still live on. And I can almost remember where each one is from. Last year, for James and my first "married" Christmas together, my parents gave us their old fake tree. Along with it, was a shoebox. When I opened it up, it was filled with all the Christmas ornaments my mom had given to me over the years at Christmas time. This is why she had been doing it, so that none of us would ever have a bare Christmas tree. So now I have my own Christmas tree filled with memories.

10. JESUS! I was going to put him first or earlier... but this is the thing about Christmas that I wanted to leave any readers out there with. I love Jesus with all my heart. This last month in November would have been awful if I couldn't get down on my knees and cry out to him to work a miracle in whatever paper I was working on. Christmas is the day he was born. And with my new little niece in my mind, I can imagine him in the manger, surrounded by hay and animals and his exhausted and relieved parents... and really that song Silent Night is wrong, because I doubt it was silent at all! Without him, I would not have listed any of the above 9 things because there wouldn't be a holiday. (well - maybe Hallmark would have made something up) Some of them have nothing to do with him at all. But many of them do - in a metaphoric or symbolic way. I am so thankful for his birth and for his death because it was all for me. And for you. And for the world. And every year, I read and hear the story of his birth and am amazed that this one child could accomplish so much. But it was all because of his Father, my Lord. Thank you Lord for Jesus and that he truly is the light of the world.

Merry Christmas everyone! Feel free to post your favourite things about Christmas in the comments or on your blogs!