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Count Your Christmas Blessings

Posted by Rebecca Teti in Just me on Monday, January 09, 2012 3:00 PM

Unless you’re one of those stalwarts who can keep celebrating right through Candlemas on February 2, our Christmas celebration closes with Epiphany (yesterday) and today’s transferred feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Each feast celebrates public manifestations of Christ: news of his coming reaching beyond Israel to the gentiles, and the beginning of his public ministry.

I thought it might be nice for us to make Christ publicly manifest in a small way ourselves, by sharing what we are most grateful for from the Advent & Christmas season just passed.

I can’t lay claim to any great inspirations or insights from the season, but the entire period of Advent and the octave were filled for me with little maternal happinesses.

My kids were more excited about giving gifts to each other this year than about what they themselves might receive. That’s long been true of the two oldest, but the excitement our little boys had about pleasing and surprising each other and their other siblings was simply delightful (and a nice change, lest you get the wrong idea about the level of piety in our household).

Our 11-year-old was simply the perfect kid to have around at Christmas this year. He’s old enough to understand, engage and be helpful and young enough to have no trace of jadedness.

His eager anticipation and enthusiasm for everything: “Is it too early to buy egg nog?”  “Is it time to decorate the tree yet?”  “When will we make the cookies?”  “May I put the Kings where they go in the nativity scene?” were contagious. Even his somewhat self-interested suggestions (“Mom, would you like me to arrange the cookies on the plate for you?”) were so jolly and without guile they absolutely undid any effort my grouchy side made to get stressed out. He kept things merry.

Just as I’ve hit my 40s and gotten a little too old, too cranky, too achy and too tired to be able to do all the decorating and cooking that Christmas requires: kids to the rescue! The boys put up the train set without Dennis’ help; my daughter arranged all the nativity scenes (the boys adding their own special touches, such as lego warriors), and the kids themselves did a fair amount of the baking—and all on their own initiative. In years past I’ve enjoyed the preparation whirlwind as a gift I give to my family (I get excited about how much they will enjoy new recipes, especially), but the arrival of a new stage—where everyone willingly pitches in—was wonderful, the moreso because it just “happened.”

Before you gag yourself reading this, I am not bragging about how harmonious our family life is.

We are all big fat bratty-brats in the Teti home, parents and kids alike, and perfectly capable of ruining nice moments with grousing and worse. That’s how I know these little things that brought me such happiness were a grace.

I know every Christmas has its own gift and each year’s celebration won’t be so peaceful and successful. So I’m thanking Jesus now for a gift of family harmony and delight in each other he gave us this year.

How about you? What good news do you have to share from your Christmas?

It can be sublime or silly: a grace or insight received, just something that warmed your heart…or a really cool present.  We want to hear!

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