Growing up in a military family meant that Christmas was always away from “home,” where all of the extended family lived. As a result, we only had one “Christmas” with our nuclear family. I never really gave it any thought that this probably wasn’t how “normal” people celebrated Christmas. When my wife and I became engaged I began to see that life was about to change in more ways than one. Suddenly I had two Christmases! Then, once we had children, we wanted to have our own Christmas. The tally was up to three.
While the children were still relatively young we found our present church home, 15-years or so ago. Our church is fairly large and has several different Christmas Eve services. Since my wife and I are both musicians, we found ourselves spending a large part of the day and night at church on Christmas Eve. My wife thrives on anything Christmas, but it’s way too busy for me. Still we find ourselves in much the same position every year. Planning out three Christmases amidst all that activity has been challenging.
Still, as we love to keep the Christ in the Christmas, I always need to find a way to take the busy out of the busyness. It’s not always easy, and it’s not always a lot of time, but time alone with the Reason-for-the-Season is refreshing.
As you celebrate this Christmas, try to carve out a little alone time with your Savior. Remember what a priceless and precious Gift He is. As the Randy Travis song says, “He had the birthday, we got the gift!”
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Skipping Stones 
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