Christmas Musings

It is that time of year when we all spend time stressing about buying presents, getting groceries, preparing the holiday meal, dealing with family, and so much more. Well this year, the Blevins' are doing things a little different. It has been a hard year for most people economically, including us. So this year, we are only buying presents for our niece and nephew. And let me just tell you how much fun it is to buy for kids. In my opinion, this has been way less stressful than buying for adults who have everything they could possibly need or want. 

This year our Christmas celebrations will be lacking a few key people like my amazing in-laws, Lynn and Terri; my sister-in-law and her family, Lyndsey, Richard, Macy, and Little ER; Pop and Mimi. This will be our first Christmas without mimi since she passed away in March. Read Terri's blog for a beautiful tribute to her. Pop will be in Florida visiting Ben's aunt and the rest of the fam will be together in Tulsa. The good news is, we all get to be together for New Years!! 

Nevertheless, I am so excited because my mom gets here tomorrow. You see she is my right hand lady at Christmas time. My mom is one of the few people (besides Jen Taylor) that I can shop and work with without getting frustrated. For the past four years, my mom has made the annual journey to come help me and the rest of the Riverside crew prepare for our Christmas Eve service at Anhalt. We transform this old German Dance/Beer hall into a beautiful wonderland for our two Christmas eve services. And trust me it takes a lot of work to get a 150 year old building looking good!  It is always so helpful to have my mom, because she just knows what to do and she doesn't have a problem telling others what to do. (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree). 

So we will have mom and hopefully my brother Ryan for Christmas, along with our good friends the Taylors and hopefully the Riedels. We won't have the pleasure of the Deans, like we did last year, because Jamie's little one has not arrived yet, so they are having Christmas at her house. Of course we will have our annual stuffed beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, asparagus, yeast rolls, and dessert. Yum Yum!! 

The hard part about Christmas at the Blevins' house is that I work most of this holiday season, including Christmas Eve. Since I am in charge of production and programming of Christmas Eve, it pretty much consumes the two weeks prior. Even though this is the 5th year we have done this, I am still not tired of it. I love my job. I love that I get to organize and put together what we hope is a life changing experience for our community. I love that I get to work with an amazing community of people who are focused on bringing G-d's shalom to a chaotic world. I love that Jesus is my boss! 

My prayer this season, as it is every December, is that I won't get so wrapped up in the planning and production, that I forget to remember and celebrate the reason for this season...the greatest gift of all.