But Mary kept all
these things, and pondered them in her heart.
- Luke 2:19, King James Bible
I love this verse from Luke. It is about Mary, who even
though she was the mother of Christ, tried to remember everything that happened
on Christmas long ago. I mean, I’m pretty sure she did ALL the Christmas
prep, welcomed the shepherds (they did
NOT call ahead), cleaned up after the gifts from the three Wise Men, and now
she’s finally trying to get some sleep after her big day but keeps going over
everthing that happened in her head instead.
I can relate.
I am pretty lousy when it comes to pondering things so I made a few notes about my 2013 Christmas.
My mom and I welcomed the Christmas by attending a beautiful Christmas Eve Service
at Resurrection United Methodist Church.
I spilled wax on my only clean pair of jeans. Both legs.
On Christmas morning I jumped out of bed before my boys and
my mom to get ready for the morning.
I couldn't remember for the life of me where I stashed the
candy!
Soon everyone was up and multitudes of carefully wrapped
gifts awaited us.
Earle and I waited for the boys to wake up and when we did,
the four of us waited for
Grandma to wake up.
She will not appear in public in her bathrobe and pajamas so then the
four of us waited some more.
Soon we were up to our elbows in a sea of paper surrounded
by the gifts of the season.
Grandma got seven boxes of Chocolate. SEVEN. She was
thrilled. She also got books and a Barnes
and Noble giftcard. She demanded to know
why Barnes and Noble didn't open on Christmas.
I was especially pleased to see how much my sons enjoyed
their gifts.
Nat really liked his Star Wars Lego Jabba’s Sail
Barge with 850 pieces for ages 9-14.
Zack and I fought over which came first, the Princess Bride
book or movie.
I certainly loved mine!
Including the books I bought for myself and wrapped for
myself.
And so did Earle!
But the additional Christmas expenses, not so much.
He cooked our traditional Christmas breakfast, blackberry
pancakes, and we dug in!
Note to self. Buy canned blackberries next year. The large
fresh ones that looked so tasty in HT rose up out of the batter on the griddle
like marbles in a plate of soup.
After breakfast it was so nice to just relax.
While the guys played video games and Mom dove into the
newest Anne Perry, I took an hour and a half morning nap with a full belly. It was a good thing I had to wear sweat pants.
We gathered around the table for a quick lunch before
heading to the movies.
Cookies for lunch.
I chose 47 Ronin because
it looked so horribly bad. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it and when the
lights came up I saw Earle had a few tears in his eyes. We were looking at each
other and silently reflecting on the somber ending when I heard Nat say “That may be the worse movie I've ever seen.”
After the movie I learned my sister had been discharged from
the hospital.
Good news indeed.
Then I prepared a Southern Living Pecan Encrusted
Salmon recipe for Christmas dinner.
We scraped off the pecan topping – ick. The yeast rolls were
still frozen in the middle but hey, the salad was good!
And then more relaxing after dinner. Mom and I tuned into
some fine Christmas programming.
I Love Lucy Christmas Special. Fred and Ethel
looked so much younger than I remembered!
In the evening Zack headed to Winston Salem to spend some
time with his girlfriend.
His safe arrival text
reading “Yes, I am alive” was one of my best Christmas gifts.
And we settled in for an early night and sweet dreams.
We always settle in for an early night. I couldn’t sleep. It’s 2:05 AM. But I’m happy to have time to ponder this perfectly imperfect
Christmas in my heart. And more importantly the birth of the perfect Christ
born into this imperfect world.
May he bless you, mankind and my cooking in 2014!
