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