DECEMBER 14

If you're doing a countdown, this is Day 11 before Christmas arrives.

Like many people, I'm finding a Monday holiday--not the usual ones like Memorial Day or Labor Day or Somebody's Birthday Observance--to be a bit, um, inconvenient. 

Christmas on Monday means Christmas Eve is Sunday. There was a bit of head-scratching, I'm sure, among the folks who plan and schedule and make things happen for Sundays. My contribution to December 24th is to be a communion assistant at the 9:00 AM service. Although I would like to be part of the late night service, starting at 11:00 PM, I live far enough from the church to accept that driving at night, in uncertain weather, on a hilly and very dark route, may not be the best thing to do.

Christmas Day service at 9:00 AM on Monday will find me on the organ bench. I can't think of a better way, or place, to celebrate this holy day.

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Last week's grumps have gone away. Maybe it was the arrival of snow, enough to cover the ground and give us the White Christmas feeling. Or maybe it was the cold--some nights in the very low teens or--{shiver, shiver}--single digits. (I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the grumps got frozen out. And it couldn't happen to a better group, I say.)

One of my projects is now in the hands of the woman who performs her artistic magic on my quilts and makes them a thing of beauty. Just delivering the quilt to her lifted a large load off my life.

Yesterday I delivered the first of my veggie trays to people I want to thank for keeping my life on track. Today I'll deliver three more, and the last two on Friday.

Christmas cards and letters have been written and mailed. 


So, you ask, what have I left undone?

Well--haven't watched any Christmas movies yet. 

Or listened to Christmas CDs.

Or baked any holiday cookies or breads or cakes.

Or  bought any special clothes or accessories to wear to gala occasions. (This might be because I don't to go any gala occasions.)

And that's all right, all of those things I haven't done. Because I still honor the season of Advent, a time of waiting and watching and preparation for the birth of a baby who changed the world.

Eleven more days . . . Time to finish delivering veggie trays. And find the last couple of gifts that have eluded me thus far. And in just over a week my Minnesota daughter arrives for a week's visit.

I wish you peace as you put the final touches on your Christmas celebrations.