Cinnamon Rolls or Jesus?

Anyone that knows me even a little bit knows that I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS! I love everything about Christmas--the music, the decorations, the traditions, the time with family--everything except the 75 degree t-shirt and flip-flop weather that is so characteristic of Houston. So you can imagine my joy when the weather channel predicted snow for our first Christmas together as a married couple. The only thing standing in the way of me and my perfect Christmas were my own, unrealistic expectations.

Being my first Christmas as a Drace, I was very excited to begin some holiday traditions of our own. I didn't feel like I was being unreasonable, all I wanted was to send out a Christmas card and newsletter and to make homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. One week before Christmas, the excitement had been replaced with stress and angst...how was I going to get it all done? Suddenly I was choosing between having presents or getting the cards out on time.

I came to my senses and went into disaster control mode. The cards could wait until after Christmas...after all they do say "and Happy New Year". I finally felt at ease on our way to the 5:00 Christmas Eve church service (my favorite Christmas tradition), knowing the presents were wrapped, our dinner would be waiting for us in the slow-cooker, and I would have plenty of time to make the cinnamon rolls before bed. God had other plans, however, and we arrived at a packed church with seats only available in an overflow area in front of a television set. It was hard enough being away from my family for the first time at Christmas, but having the Christmas Eve service taken away from me was just too much to handle and I burst into tears. I told Justin watching the service wasn't the same as experiencing it and we left. I knew there was one more service at 7:00 but by the time we could make it home my chicken and dumplings would be mush and there would be no time left for my cinnamon rolls.

Then it hit me.

Christmas isn't about cards or cinnamon rolls. It isn't about music, decorations, or traditions. It isn't even about time with family, although I do love that. Christmas is only about one thing: celebrating the birth of Christ. If I couldn't take the time to do that, then what difference did all of the rest of it make? The choice between cinnamon roles and Jesus was a no-brainer. We killed some time, got a snack at Sonic, and headed back early for the 7:00 service. Even without all the familiar faces or hugs, it was one of the best services I ever attended.

So we finally had our white Christmas, and we built a snowman to celebrate. We treated ourselves to a delicious honey-baked ham and took a day off from any intensive cooking. We listened to Linus tell the story of Jesus' birth in a Charlie Brown Christmas. We were even visited by Santa (he brought me a Le Creuset!) We didn't have cinnamon rolls, but that's alright because our Christmas was perfect without them! Merry Christmas y'all!

Click here for a PDF version of our newsletter: Drace Family Newsletter: Christmas 2010
 

The Best Laid Plans...

My to-do list is never-ending (whose isn't?) But I'm not talking about the everyday pay-the-bills, clean-the-house tasks. I'm talking about my constantly evolving list of personal projects: preserving the best memories of the last four years of my life in photo albums, amassing all my recipes into one convenient location, starting a blog...

GASP! The dreaded blog.

I've been avoiding this for so long because I have this terrible enthusiasm problem...in that I have way too much of it. I'm always excited to tackle my next big idea, but rarely do I stick with it long enough to see it amount to anything. So I thought a good New Year's resolution might be to start, and MAINTAIN, a blog (and yes, I really do start planning my resolutions this far in advance.) But knowing my track record for keeping said resolutions, I figured I could benefit from getting an early start. That way, when I inevitably neglect this blog for weeks at a time, I can bypass the feeling of "well I already ruined my resolution, might as well give up" and just press on! At least, that's the plan.


Now that Justin and I have moved across the country and away from home for the first time, I thought a blog would be the best way to share our many new adventures with our friends and family. The blog title came from the song lyrics of one of my favorite country artists, Alan Jackson. It seemed like the perfect fit because although we've loved each other for almost four years, being married has finally given us the opportunity to really learn what it means to do life together, the way God intended it. And THAT is the real adventure and what I hope to share through this blog. Thanks for joining us on the ride!