We are so close to Christmas now and it’s always this time, just days before Christmas day, that I start to feel like I just want it to be over with. And I can’t find the energy to go to the store to pick up the missing ingredients so I scratch that dish completely and make something else to take to dinner. Will anyone care that I’m bringing scalloped sweet potatoes instead of potatoes au gratin with white potatoes? Will they think I’ve done something fancy and love it? Or will they see right through me and know I’ve taken the easy route? And why do I let stress take over just days before this wonderful celebration and allow “easy routes” to appear on this map to the manger?
I love this season of giving so much that I had the house decorated and Christmas music playing days before Thanksgiving. And yet here I am. Too much time spent on work instead of family. Too much energy spent on the list instead of the recipient. Too much focus spent on the one day on the 25th of this month to just get through instead of the rest our days, this current one included, as the true gift given to embrace.
Too much spent. Period. That sums me up. But I found this poem today and it couldn’t have come at a better time to remind us all that whatever we need this Christmas, we already have it.
As the inevitable stress creeps in in these last days before Christmas, and we find ourselves looking forward to it just being over, my wish is that we can take a step back, take a deep breath in, and take hold of the joy that lies waiting, within our reach. Merry Christmas.
Take Joy
There is nothing I can give you which you have not;
but there is much,
that, while I cannot give,
you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take Heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take Peace.
The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet, within our reach,
is joy.
Take Joy.
And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you, with the prayer that for you,
now and forever,
the day breaks
and
the shadows flee away.
–Fra Gio
he hung the moon 
I have always liked the idea of 12 days of Christmas where you do things not on just one day but days before and after Christmas. Not tying everything up with one day but spreading the things you do across days and the responsibilities too. Christmas day of course is like the main course but the days before and after I like to have the appetizers and then the desserts of Christmas. We do not do this well but I wish we did more of it. Maybe next year I will consider a theme for each of the 12 days of Christmas