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I LOVE Christmas!  I love having a beautiful tree glimmering with lights and pretty decorations in the corner of the living room.  I love the smell of lukken cookies, a Belgian butter cookie I only make at this time of year, as it’s pretty time consuming.  You make them on the stove top using a cast iron lukken yzer, and can only make one at a time.  I love the traditions of Christmas, both the ones that were passed along, such as making the lukkens, and the ones we created, such as having Christmas day just with our family and being lazy and watching movies and enjoying the spirit of Christmas.  And, this year, I feel we’re really doing it right. 

When I was younger, I would get so stressed this time of year, with work, and kids, and shopping to do, and presents to wrap and house to clean and prepare, because of course, everything had to be perfect, whatever that means.  I’d make myself so crazy that I frequently ended up sick by Christmas Day.  Over the years, I’ve learned that however things end up as far as preparations go, is perfect.  There is no specific way it HAS to look.  One of the things we started doing years ago to keep things in perspective is to volunteer serving meals at the Detroit Rescue Mission.  Also, we would adopt a family, first from the Salvation Army, later from the DRMM.  The kids loved it, and so did we.  What a great way to get the feeling of Christmas.  We were more excited about making someone else’s Christmas special than our own, which did, in fact, make ours so much better. 

Every year, except the first year of the pandemic, where we tried a zoom family Christmas, we had Christmas Eve at my parents.  We own their house now and have continued the tradition of hosting the Longe family Christmas party on Christmas Eve, where all of my brothers and their families come together.  We provide the main course and everyone brings side dishes, appetizers and of course, Christmas cookies.  The kids, who are now mostly grown, do a play about the meaning of Christmas with Linus and Charlie Brown.  Someone reads the book The Station aloud.  We eat and drink, and everyone brings a gift for their Kris Kringle assigned at a name drawing on Thanksgiving.

All of our shopping is done.  I would tell you that I downsized on that, but looking at the pile of gifts, I’m not so sure how successful I was.  We reused and created wrapping versus buying lots of pretty paper that gets immediately ripped and thrown out.  And, we keep plodding along with what needs to be done, but I’m not anxious or stressed about it.  It’s funny how it takes years to get the maturity to figure out what’s important and what’s trivial and can be let go.  Once, I decided that how everything is, is perfect, everything else fell into place.  My mom, who lives with us, is a worrier and still likes to fret and moan about how she doesn’t know how we’ll get everything done in time.  I just smile and say, “you say that every year and we always do.” 

It’s so easy to get carried away this time of year, especially with all of the media hype.  It’s easy to forget the reason for the season.  God gave us his son Jesus to save us from our sins.  I know this isn’t actually the time of year he was born, but it is a celebration that he was born.  How better to celebrate then to be as Jesus-like as possible.  Be kind to people, look for ways to compliment them, and give to the less fortunate.  Here is a really good one, be compassionate to others, and to yourself.   Smile more, stress less.  Everything will be grand.

I’m feeling at peace and very grateful.  We usually go to the children’s mass on Christmas Eve, which is a lovely way to feel and appreciate the spirit of Christmas.  I’m grateful for my family and that we can all get together, and I’m enormously grateful for all of my friends.  I feel very blessed.  I love this time of year, and feel we finally got it right.  My love to everyone reading this blog.  You are special and a blessing.  Merry Christmas!