Christmas reflections

Well, that's it for another year. The parties are over and the kids are gone. The house, although still dressed for Christmas, is strangely quiet.  I love having our children at home and always look forward to their visits. However, it's time to pick up the pieces of our regular life. It's also time to stop drinking and eating so much party food.

As I walk around the house, there are remnants of Christmas activities and visitors in every room. We rented a hotub for a week so there are bathing suits hanging up in the basement and a small mountain of towels in front of the washing machine.  The high chair, playpen (sorry that sounds so 1960's..the pack n' play) and toys are in the rec room. The mark of Prince Avery is everywhere - We keep finding Dora stickers on furniture, clothes and windows. Princess Eliza's baby blankets are washed and back onto the shelf, awaiting her next visit.

Say what you will about Christmas. Yes, it's a lot of work, before, during and after. However, it is still a grand occasion for family and friend visiting. When else in the year do we all make a point to be together, to sleep at the same house, to buy each other gifts, to sit around and visit and watch funny, old movies? There is something comforting about gathering together at this, the darkest time of the year.

Here is part of a reflection that our friend Roy sent to us. It's from an editorial in the Vancouver Sun, in 2012.

"Whether Christian or Hindu, Jew or Buddhist, Sikh or Muslim, agnostic, atheist or secular humanist, there is something for everyone in the big tent of Christmas with its principles of good will toward all others, devotion to peace instead of strife, celebration of family and community, generosity in equal measure toward friends and strangers, toward the poor and the lonely and the marginalized."

Today was the start of the new work year, the week to put the trees and decorations away, to get back to the ordinary. As we resume our more mundane lives, I will steal another bit from Roy's Christmas letter. Happy New Year to All!

When the Song of the Angels Is Stilled

– by Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and the princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among people,

To make music in the heart.