Almost Christmas

[singsong] It's a week before Christmas and we are full of anxiety! [/singsong]



So we finish the honeymoon and bolt right into the holiday season. With Christmas less than a week away, Kate and I are in crunch time to get gift-treats baked, cards sent out, and presents bought. Kate and I were getting a bit stressed with how much we still wanted to do...and how little time we had to do it in.

But I think we're doing okay now. Our Christmas cards and presents may not get out as early as we'd hoped, but I don't think our friends and family will fault us too badly for that. I least I think they won't. ;-)

Due to lack of vacation time, neither of us can take time off to visit family for Christmas. I think this will be the first Christmas that Kate doesn't spend with her family. She seems relaxed about that for the moment. We'll probably go visit my folks and sister sometime in January if we can (which may be tricky given my coming school schedule).

So since we're "stuck" in Fort Collins for the holidays, we're trying to see if we can gather together a group of local folks for dinner on Christmas. Bill and Tammy have already said they'd join us. Kate's sister Emily MIGHT come up from Denver. And we think we might pull in Beth and Jeff as well. Since we only have two confirmations, we decided that we would not pull out the 22lb turkey that my parents gave us over Thanksgiving. Instead, we'll make up some game hens for everyone and save the turkey for a big weekend dinner when we have PLENTY of friends to help us eat all that poultry. :-)

We'll also be having our traditional New Year's Eve party at our place this year. That shindig looks like it'll have plenty of attendees so it should be loads of fun. Maybe we can get rid of some of the sparkling cider we've been sitting on since the wedding. :-)

Interesting tidbit from church yesterday. Have you heard this slogan for the Christmas holiday?



Good reminder, right? Well, during his sermon on Sunday, one of our deacons had another take on it. In his opinion, Jesus isn't the reason, WE are. Christ is the Gift. God wanted all of us to be saved so He sent his Son to Earth. Jesus is the ultimate present, our Father's gift to his children. And with the usual hustle and bustle of holiday expectations, a lot of us tend to forget that.

So let's not forget to be thankful for the really important Gifts we receive this Christmas season.



Thanks for reading! And here's hoping you have a Christmas season free of stress and anxiety!