Christmas Isn't Over Yet

 "God lives among us in the birth of Jesus Christ and pours hope and joy into our lives."

Peanut and I are excitedly celebrating the 12 days of Christmas for the first time.

For those who haven't done that before, be curious for a minute and I'll share about our experience.

The liturgical church calendar separates Christmas into two parts.

Advent and the 12 days of Christmas.

Advent is the time leading up to Christmas. A time to prepare your heart and mind for Christmas.

The 12 days of Christmas is a time to celebrate. It begins on Christmas Day and go until Jan 5, the Sunday before Epiphany.

Epiphany is the day we celebrate the arrival of the wise men.

I don't know about you but I arrive at Christmas morning every year exhausted.

The litany of events, functions, "musts" that color our calendar wear me out.

We are sick every single year between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The day after Christmas every year I have this mix of mom guilt, regret, sadness.

For all the things I wanted to do that didn't get done.

For the games we didn't play. The puzzles we didn't complete. The craft project we never started. The lights we didn't make it to see. For the things I WANTED to do that I didn't because of the constraints of our commitments.

So this year I woke up on December 26th, the 2nd day of Christmas and I had 11 more days.

A gift.

11 more days to actually enjoy the decorations.

11 more days to do the things. Or not.

11 more days to focus on the joy of celebrating.

Each morning Peanut moves the wise men toward the manger.

Our visual of the journey.

Our reminder that Christmas came but it's not gone.

Each day we choose something off the list of things we wanted to do with the extended break, the holiday festivities, the small of our living room or the expansiveness of our community.

Each day we've been purposeful in celebrating Christmas.

We've visited with family and lingered. Not the rushed 1 hour function but the lingering all day sipping coffee and catching up.

We've played the games.

We've gone for the walks.

We've worked on the Christmas puzzle.

We've watched the Christmas movie while eating the ridiculous amount of Christmas candy.

We've turned on these Christmas lights throughout my house and we've been reminded.

The light has come.

Mama Warriors, I know the world starts celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and abruptly stops at the end of December 25th.

We are called to be different than the world though.

We aren't celebrating commercial Christmas.

We are celebrating the birth of the Savior.

We are living into the coming of the light.

That doesn't have to look a certain way for your family. It doesn't have to mean your wise men are moving toward your manger.

But it does challenge us think about what does celebrating the coming of the Savior look like?

How do we live into light?