Favorite Christmas song: Joy to the World
Favorite Christmas movie: A Christmas Story, hands down
Favorite Christmas food: this one is hard because I’ve eaten so much of this stuff since Thanksgiving that none of it sounds very good right now. But usually sweet potato soufflé, green beans and the macaroni and cheese (the mac & cheese is a Debenport special) are favorites. Plus I love all the appetizers at Christmas parties – hot artichoke dip, cheese ball, lil’ smokies, etc. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but I enjoy really good homemade peanut brittle.
Favorite Christmas activities: finding just the right tree and getting it decorated with all of the ornaments that remind me of places I’ve been, wrapping presents while listening to Christmas music, shopping for Christmas “angels”, baking (again with the Christmas music) and it’s even more fun if it’s overcast (and possibly snowing now that we’re in CO) ; stockings – LOVE the stockings!
Favorite Christmas memories: again a hard one, I have lots of fun ones. Paul and me waking up early Christmas mornings when we were young and then me having to drag him out of bed as he got older and I was still waking up early; Christmas spent on an African safari; getting a skateboard for Christmas when we lived in Hong Kong (don’t ask me what I thought I would do with it – I had no idea how to use it – but all the other kids were getting them, both boys and girls, so I thought it’d be cool to have one too. I think I rode it once and that was it); going to a nice neighborhood in Phoenix when I was young and seeing the amazing light displays on the houses . . . I remember the neighborhood kids would always sell hot chocolate to the “light gazers”
I really do love this time of year and while I enjoy the music and the movies and the fun food, each year I find myself thinking more and more about all the people who don’t experience this joy. I think of those that are so burdened by poverty, injustice, war, disease and other tragic circumstances that their thoughts are not about special foods or gifts or fun memories . . . their thoughts simply revolve around survival and perhaps what or whom they have lost. My prayer is that I will not let myself be carried away with the consumerism and the busy-ness of this season but instead that this season will truly be about the good news of the birth of Jesus and the grace and peace that He brings into this hurting world.
-Rebecca
