Christmas Is Still Coming

Getting to the end of a hard year is not holding the shine that it usually does for me, but Christmas is still coming. Christ has still come and we can still celebrate!!! We decorated after Thanksgiving and I've started listening to my favorite Christmas songs.

I'm still having Secret Santa exchanges with my two groups. I'm still having Christmas Eve with my family, going to church on Christmas Day, and then spending that day with my mom's family. I'm still listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies and baking gingerbread. I'm still going to Advent services.

I don't have a lot of things planned this Christmas (surprise, surprise) but I do have a large family session that I am very excited about (for more than one reason :) I'm hoping for snow and a white Christmas. Is it crazy to keep hoping for something that pretty much never happens? Well I am crazy for snow!

So what is different? Well, we aren't doing Advent dinners before service. There won't be a Christmas program. Christmas Basket Blessings is happening but in a different way. The Christmas Day service will likely be different. And we just won't be doing gatherings that we might have normally done. I'm not sure what we'll be missing but I'm sure there is something. I look at my calendar and it is strangely empty. But I still have Christmas shopping to do and gifts to finish making and get in the mail. Somehow I think I'll not be bored :)

How are you celebrating Christmas this year? Are you starting any new traditions for this odd time in which we find ourselves?