White Christmas -- Bah Humbug!

For me Christmas traditions have always been important -- late Christmas eve church service with the bells at midnight, family all together. This has been one of my strangest Christmases. No church last night thanks to the blizzard. No brunch with the kids. Instead, Jack and I spent a good part of the afternoon trying to dig our way out of the house. We managed to get one of the cars out. A neighbor made a pass at the top of our driveway with his snowplow and Jack decided to back my car out of the street into the driveway. It's now sitting in the yard -- stuck until the spring thaw. Hope we can get the other car out in the morning and get to the kids for a belated brunch. It's not quite 5 p.m. and I'm already in my pajamas. After the shoveling, I came in for a shower and decided to get snuggy.

I think this year tops my previous weird Christmas -- the year we spent Christmas in Singapore. Sitting close to the equator, it was hot and sunny. We did get to late night church at the local Anglican church -- odd, with the windows open and anthuriums and orchids in with the poinsettias. No family that year and every time I walked into our hotel and heard the kids' choirs singing carols, I'd burst into tears.

I'm older now -- experienced Christmases with kids away from home and parents passing -- I know life isn't always what we want or what we expect. But I have learned that there is a bottom line. God IS and Christmas IS and so, even though this day was not as I had planned, I'm still celebrating. I hope you are, too!