When I woke up on Christmas morning I kept thinking about what my day would be like if I was at home.
I realized if I was at home my sister, Jenny, would have come in and woken me up. We both would have gone downstairs and jumped on our parents bed to wake them up. They would have asked us “Did Santa Claus come”? We would have all gone into the living room to survey what “Santa” had brought us. Dad would go into the kitchen and start the coffee while me or Jen would call my brother, Andy, and sister-in-law, Jody, to see if they were ready to come over to open gifts. Andy and Jody would eventually come over and we would all sit in the living room. I would wrap up in my favorite blanket, my owl blanket and we would start the tradition of figuring out who was going to be Santa’s elf and pass out the gifts. We would start opening up presents and Dad would do his traditional “Nononono!! Not that one yet! There’s a story behind that one”! Then, we would have to set our half opened package down and open something new. After the presents we would eat some of mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls then open stockings. The rest of the afternoon would be lazy as we would just sit around and try on the new clothes we got.
This Christmas was quite different from my past Christmas’. I woke up in the morning lying on the floor since my ThermaRest has a hole in it. I woke up to the sound of the sheep outside of my room “baaing” for the last time, since it was about to be slaughtered for our Christmas dinner. I promptly put in my earplugs so that I would not have to hear the poor thing be murdered. I laid in my “bed” for a while longer and finally got up. For Christmas breakfast we ate some amazing white bread and butter and washed it down with Chai Tea. After getting ready we headed to hold a Christmas service at church. It was a regular service at LatterGloryChurch; many of the kids were high and a few passed out on the benches. Later that night we held another Crusade. It was a great time and I held a little girl, named Stacy, who fell asleep in my arms!
That is one of the best feelings in the world. That was what Christmas is about! After a day that was completely out of the ordinary and did not feel like Christmas, I needed that little girl. Christmas Day was not what I am used to. It was not about the gifts, my owl blanket, homemade cinnamon rolls, or my family. It was about the fact that Jesus sent us his son. It was about Jesus’ birth and the fact that God loves us so much. That little girl falling asleep in my arms brought Christmas into perspective. I could give a little girl who was so tired some rest. I could give someone else comfort on the most blessed day!
It was not my normal Christmas day but it was still Christmas and the meaning behind Christmas was still there.
