I may have skipped Christmas this year

Taking a little time to ponder a different pace I experienced this year

I feel like I may have skipped Christmas this year. The season has been very different than years past. I’ve spent the entire Christmas season in Brazil where Christmas isn’t nearly as commercialized. But I have been in Brazil for Christmas before, so what is different?

Christmas in Brazil a few years ago was full of pressure as I was preparing to return to the States in January after a 6 month mission trip. So I was busy making sure everything was completed. I also joined Ray of Hope and a team from my church on a short mission trip to give gifts to the children I had spent the past several months serving in Autazes.

Last year I was in London for Christmas. Yuri and I arrived a few weeks into the Holiday season. I wanted to make sure he got to experience some of the excitement of a traditional “Northern” Christmas. I was already pretty hyped from closing out a fairly intense mission trip. We had just traveled from Brazil by bus through Guyana then Barbados to arrive in London. Which was not our original destination when we started that trip. So I was not in a frame of mind to just relax and enjoy the Holiday season.

For the years since Debi died, whenever I was in Colorado, I took part on coordinating the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services at our church. This was always a marathon of usually 6 services across 2 days. Where we had anywhere from 600 to 1200 people per service. On top of that I usually coordinated events for my group of friends and singles ministry throughout the holiday season. Singles often want to keep very busy to keep our minds off of the trauma of years past.

Debi always loved Christmas and no matter how sick she was, she wanted to do many events throughout the season. We usually went to a Christmas concert which required much coordination to make sure she had enough oxygen for the night. We often made Christmas cookies which we shared with friends and neighbors. And there was always Christmas light gazing and even when it just the two of us, I still made a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings. I became a master coordinator to manage all of those activities with the unexpected events resulting from her illness.

Christmas has become very much the traditional go go go that was highlighted in Christmas with the Kranks. Sadly for most of us in the US, that is our traditional Christmas.

This year, I didn’t get involved in a mission trip or church production. Yuri offered to make Christmas dinner. And I was more than happy to hand over the oven mitts this year. He planned and fixed the entire meal. I’ve been hanging out with my group from karaoke and Beerjet. And Yanka often coordinates things for that group. For the first year, I haven’t been responsible for anyone else’s holiday spirit.

I never realized how intense traditional Christmas was until now. It was a very good change of pace.

This wasn’t planned. I didn’t get frustrated and decide I was going to reject all of the hustle and bustle of the traditional holiday season. It just happened this way. Yesterday was Christmas afternoon. And I didn’t experience the deflating like a blow-up toy ready to burst at the seems that I usually feel when all of the holiday cheer comes to an end. I am pretty sure I will be back to coordinating things again next year, but for this year, I took a much needed holiday from the holiday.

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