Christmas Bliss

"Where are you going for Christmas?" We begin to hear that question the Monday after fall break and the query continues right up until the very last person with travel plans steps into his escape vehicle and jets off. In past years we have ventured out into the wide world over the holidays. This year we stayed home. We had our reasons. Both Sarah and Benj are having minor surgeries this week (Benj's was yesterday and today he is fit and fiesty as usual) and we decided that it would be best to lay low. Wow, was that ever a good choice.

I am all for travel and exploration, but I am also a big fan of simplicity and rest. I love sleeping late (in my own bed) and waking to a house of still sleeping teenagers. I love searching for the leftover rolls that Benjamin has stashed somewhere in the kitchen. I love watching entire seasons of dumb TV shows and playing games until midnight and eating popcorn and chex mix and the apples and carrots and red bell peppers that David conscientiously sends in our direction. Love dancing to the Brave Combo Christmas album in the kitchen. I love wearing three different sweaters in one day just because I can. I love lounging about reading our Christmas books and making yet another batch of fudge on a whim and playing with the few friends who are also staying home for Christmas.

I think I just love a quiet Christmas because it is a great big sigh between intense sprints and being home allows me to just fall right down deep into that sigh and settle in for awhile. And while I am there, I can think, and be grateful for the love of a Father, and of a Savior, and of that baby born to traveling parents thousands of years ago.
Merry Christmas.