What's Christmas All About?

This time last December Byron and I were winding up our trips to the interior and all the various home Bible studies to get ready to head to America for Christmas with our family. This year seems a little too quiet and somber without that rushed feeling of packing and prepping. I wasn't even sure if I should bother to get out any of my old stash of Christmas decorations or hunt for our artificial tree.

I finally decided against the tree but did search for my trunk of ornaments, nativity scenes and Christmas houses. In a quick flurry of decorating I removed all the miscellaneous things from the top of our big buffet cabinet in the living room and turned it into a Christmas village. And I started pumping out Christmas tunes on my little Internet radio to make the moment bright.

But my mind has been wandering back to Christmases past when our boys were small. William here was demonstrating his leadership skills at a young age telling the other brothers which tree should be the one to take home. Dalton looks doubtful about William's assessment. Greyson seems happy to take the best one we could.

There were gifts and meals and cookies and lots of fun.

And my mind wonders about Christmases of the future when all the little grandchildren who won't be so small the next time I'm with them for such a grand holiday.

Sometimes too much wandering in Christmas past and wondering about Christmas future can mess up our Christmas now. I'm working on my smiling and cheerfulness. I'm counting the blessings of this Christmas of 2022. This week I hope to deliver some gift boxes of basic food stuffs to a family or two. We are getting ready to help a little fellow have a pre-Christmas surgery that social medicine won't provide. These things have quite a bit to do with what the holiday is all about.

On Christmas Day Byron and I will most likely be in Lage dos Negros. I'm thinking of buying some bright red shirts and throwing out candy in all the communities we pass through!

I'll definitely need some photos of that! We'll see!

Merry Christmas!

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