Christmas Service

Kind of an odd Christmas in my perspective. Seems scandalous to say such a thing about Christmas day but that's my experience with it just the same.

The kids, however had a good day. They were thrilled with the gifts and were even flexible with adjusted Santa plans around our 9:00 Church schedule. We had stockings first thing in the morning, then went to Church and returned home to open the presents under the tree. Emily's highlight was the newest Zelda game. It was actually a family gift but she liked the story of the last one so much that she's drawn countless characters from it and copied stories, she's even midway through a project to create a book of Zelda. Ethan's highlight was a few lego sets that he got - an alien spaceship and a star wars ship. Jason was thrilled to recieve the Thomas ship play set he asked from Santa. Claire, being the consummate girly girl that she is loves her princess dress ups and her princess pajamas. And Ben has enjoyed this little ball machine thing that has holes for balls in the top, and a winding path down the height of the toy leading to where the ball comes out at the bottom, ready to be picked up and put in the top again.

Alicia and I had a bit of a limited Christmas this year. We thought that we would only have enough money for the kids but some extra cash showed up so we got a few things for each other too. The limited cash pushed us to be a little more creative with our gifts. Alicia got me an awesome comfy blanket and I got her a pregnancy survival kit of coupons she can use for a night off, a craving run (Alicia insists on calling them "wantings" and not cravings.), a day off from work, etc..

So that was all the great part of the day. The oddness came in when Alicia started to get sick this afternoon and I was responsible to take care of the house myself. So I had added responsibility and an attitude that Christmas should be a relaxing day. So I was pretty self-focused through the day and when kids needed things or the house was dirty, those needs were in direct competition with my desire to have a day off. As a result, I ended the day in bad temper with the kids and a VERY messy house. I felt kind of awful.

So I've learned that there are no days off. Even if I'm on vacation, I'm serving. And that's okay. It's as it should be. Every day that I'm granted life on this earth is a day I'm meant to bless other people's lives. I'm much happier when I'm serving anyway - especially on Christmas Day.