It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

A few random thoughts on the approaching big day:

I have a friend who is disturbingly obsessed with snowmen. Maybe it started when she lived in Lubbock, TX, but now she lives in New London, OH so she should get to see plenty. Not that weather matters, because even if it's 95 degrees here on the 25th, she has like five billion of them in her house so she'll get her fix. Most of them are really cute ... although one is psychotic, one is phalic and the 75 animated snowmen in one room are enough to push you over the edge if they're all going at once. Merry Christmas, anyway, Hami.

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I am usually the most awesome gift-giver. I'm not bragging here, but usually my best friend and my brother and my friends that live far away are apologizing to me on the 22nd because they haven't gotten my box in the mail (although my brother usually does get it here on time.) I, on the other hand, have things bought and packaged and mailed by the 10th, just to be sure they arrive on time. Not this year. This year I mailed Lila's present (we exchange ornaments) on the 19th, sent out Christmas cards on the 20th, and I still haven't bought my brother anything - and his birthday is the 23rd so I am doubly behind. In fact, I got a boxes today from my brother and from Lila. For a moment I thought I had slept through January and we were already in February, which is when hers usually come (those are her words, not mine!) What happened to the real Tiffany Sanders?? Maybe she got left in Searcy.

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Today Abigail and Cooper got letters from Santa. If you are the elf who dropped them in the mail so that they'd have a Mansfield, OH post mark --- Thanks. Cooper didn't totally get it, but Abby was amazed. We're talking jaw dropped eyes wide as I read her the letter, one of those fun "family update" letters that some people hate and I love. Abigail is at that age where she's realized that not all Santa's she sees are the **real** Santa; some ARE fake, but there is a real one coming in a few days. And she really believes the one she talked to at the mall was the real one. To be honest, so do I. This wasn't your usual bearded guy sitting through a bunch of snotty kids, doing his best to be jolly. This guy talked to my kids. He commented on how much Abby had grown since he saw her last year, he asked if she was making cookies for him again and even told her about the Barbie he'd bought for her teacher Miss Heather when she was a little girl. The guy was fun and into his role and could melt the heart of any grinch.

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I love While You Were Sleeping by Casting Crowns. Not many songs could fall under three holiday genres: Christmas, Easter and Independence Day, but this one does.

Oh little town of Bethlehem, looks like another silent night
Above your deep and dreamless sleep, a giant star lights up the sky
And while you're lying in the dark there shines an everlasting light
For the King has left His throne, and is sleeping in a manger tonight
Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
For God became a man and stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping

Oh little town of Jerusalem, looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son The Way, the Truth, the Life had came
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save
Jerusalem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
The Savior of the world is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping

United States of America, looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children
And while we're lying in the dark there's a shout heard 'cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned and has carried His bride away in the night
America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again and leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping ?
Will we be sleeping ?

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I'm sad for Christians who won't celebrate Christmas. I know it's not really the day Christ was born, but it's still a great moment to really celebrate His birth. To be thankful for a young girl with a deep enough faith to be His mother and a teenage boy with enough faith to stand by her. To think about how that one night - whatever the date was - changed EVERYTHING. Beyond just acknowledging the holiday for that reason, our culture is thinking about Christ and for some this is the one time of year He might cross their minds. We would be STUPID to pretend that outside our building it's any other ole' day. Like at Easter, people are at church who normally are sound asleep. Let's do something to get them back the next week. Jimmy is leading singing at second service Sunday, and I promise, Frosty the Snowman will be sung -- just kidding.

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Well, we came full circle and we're back to snowmen. Wherever you are, have a happy, merry, blessed Christmas.