Eyes On Your Own Nativity
a friendly almost-Christmas reminder
by Kelly Dolin
in Faith
on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 3:00 PM
I recently gleaned some useful Christmas advice from a combox here at Faith and Family Live!. Commenter StephC was responding to a mother who is where most of us have been at one time or another: Overwhelmed. Tired, out of steam, even hopeless—and riding the Polar Express full speed into That Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
Steph’s advice? Keep your eyes on your own nativity. As we enter the final days of preparation for the great feast of Christmas, we would all do well to take this to heart.
No matter what our spiritual disposition, it is an undeniable fact that Advent and Christmas bring a degree of busyness and stress. God willing, we will all celebrate many, many Christmases. Some years find us in fine form, ready to enter the season of preparation and excited to celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas day. Other years find us (okay, me) scrounging for Advent candles on December 23rd and happy to come up with three burgundies and a red when purple and pink prove to be somewhat elusive. True story. While three burgundies and a red might make fine choices when buying wine, they’re just a touch out of the liturgical norm when preparing for Christmas.
Oh well. Keep your eyes on your own nativity!
Four of the last five Christmas seasons have found me early pregnant or nursing a newborn. Great excuses to pare back, keep it simple. The year I was expecting four-year-old John, I crawled through the entire season with one eye on the clock wondering when I could finagle my next nap and one eye on the bathroom door wondering how soon I’d be hurtling myself through it.
Ugh! Worth every last ounce of suffering, but ugh!
Somehow we managed the trek from Georgia to Michigan for the holidays that year. I think my logic went something like this: I can remain in the fetal position here in Georgia and do all the shopping and cooking by myself, or I can manage to haul our sorry selves to Detroit, assume the fetal position there, and let my mother-in-law and sisters wait on me hand and foot. No brainer!
I remember the trip home was heinous with a capital H. I was throwing up before we left my sister’s house. I was throwing up as we crossed the border into Ohio. We had a portable DVD player that I was known for employing with great moderation and discernment. On that trip I said, “Have at it, boys! I’ll see you in Augusta!”
It was the quietest fifteen hour drive we’ve ever had.
My dear friend went to confession one Advent. She lamented to the priest how far short she felt she was falling in pulling together a holy season of preparation. This priest is a good man, a holy man, a man who loves liturgy and the church seasons. You know what he told her? Relax and enjoy your family.
To be sure, celebrations—all of them—require work. But Father Brett had it right—it’s also about simply enjoying your family.
For us that means lots of egg nog – My oldest son’s favorite drink. It means multiple viewings of Elf and The Santa Clause—liturgically bankrupt and really very funny. It means boiled peanuts and chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and potato soup.
It means pulling out the Advent candles, late or on time, pink and purple or red and burgundy. It means writing out cards to people I look forward to hearing from once a year. It means fun and busyness and a gentle tug back to the true meaning behind all this hurly burly—Emmanuel, God is with us.
This year, to maximize our joy and to minimize our stress, it also means taking Steph’s advice and keeping my eyes on my own nativity.
—Kelly Dolin blogs at In the Sheepfold.
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