Sleighbells, Reindeer, and Snow (HOl 108)

HOL 108

It dawned on me in the middle of December that between Charlie Brown’s Christmas special, the Advent liturgies at church, and Delilah, I was hearing more about how people get depressed at Christmas than enjoy it, and I found it was rubbing off on me.

It dawned on me that I had a four year old, and was in the middle of a precious few years where reindeer really fly, and Santa really visits. We had a great snowy shut-in weekend before Christmas. We called it our “Practice Christmas”.

Christmas Eve was incredible. Isaac was asked to bring in the Christ candle for the service. This was also the first time I let him light and hold his own candle for the candlelight sing along at the end of the service.

We had Christmas Eve dinner with our friends David and Debbie at one our favorite restaurants, Phoenix Asian cuisine. We then met Mike and Kari at our house to watch Charlie Brown and the Grinch and to enjoy liquor store cupcakes. (They were called Irish car bombs and they were incredible.)

Bed time came, cookies were set out. The celery we had planned for reindeer food had gone bad, so we left out an apple. We read our stories and said our prayers and then Isaac and I sat in his bed looking out the window for Santa. I stayed for a lot longer than I expected at one point I even thought to myself, “I wish Santa would hurry up and fly by, because I have to get some presents out.” Lying in bed with Isaac and looking out that window with anticipation will be one of the moments I remember as long as I live.

Santa came and left toys and books (for some reason Santa always leaves books at our house!). After all of the presents were opened and played with, Isaac found a big present down stairs by the chimney, a battery operated scooter. (Do not call it a motorcycle, or Isaac will correct you….it is in fact a scooter.)

Santa even gave Nancy and I tickets to Avenue Q and Merlefest which makes us even more excited about the slowly approaching spring.

The next few weeks were a blur of family visits, road trips, spending time with friends, and going to see one of my favorite new movies, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

It was a great Christmas.

Hang in there Dick Clark.

Strength and Honor
Big Matt


P.S. Right now Isaac is singing "Ants on the ground! Ants on the ground!"