I'm trying to decide in my heart if it's okay that we've trashed most of our former family Christmas traditions in place of new traditions in order to fit in with this culture.
We used to cut down our tree after the first snow. Britt was strict about it. He also always had to work thanksgiving weekend. So we rarely got it that weekend. Here we can't cut down a tree. And we feel fortunate that we can even get a real one.
Our kids grew up sleeping around the Christmas tree Christmas Eve. It was a tradition we picked up from the Wildman family that I lived with while my parents were in Africa. Christmas Eve was really our special family time. We would go to our church's Christmas Eve service and return home to open most of our presents. And only saved stockings for Christmas morning.
Here, it's all about the fireworks. So it messes up all our old traditions. Since I have a pyromania family, this is not a sad trade off for them. But this momma misses the old traditions. We did get to go to a candlelight service Sunday night with our church. I so appreciated that. But since we get home around 1:00 a.m. after viewing the midnight fireworks overlooking the city at our friends house, we don't open up gifts nor sleep around the tree anymore on Christmas Eve. We were probably about to lose that tradition anyway with so many teenagers in the house.
This year, our kids didn't wake up until 9:00. We opened gifts in our bedroom where there's the most light. Later Meg asked why we didn't open them by the tree down in the living room. Apparently that's important. Oops. I'll try to remember that next year.
While contemplating traditions lost and new ones formed, I've come to the conclusion that what's most important is what God thinks about it all...not me. Isn't this all about Jesus anyway? When we decided to follow God's leading in moving here, we were willing to make lots of sacrifices. Christmas traditions just happens to be one of them. One that I never thought of at the time. If at the end of the season, God is glorified and made greater in how we pass the season, than our mission is accomplished. Sure it looks different for us here. But we are used to different by now.
We used to cut down our tree after the first snow. Britt was strict about it. He also always had to work thanksgiving weekend. So we rarely got it that weekend. Here we can't cut down a tree. And we feel fortunate that we can even get a real one.
Our kids grew up sleeping around the Christmas tree Christmas Eve. It was a tradition we picked up from the Wildman family that I lived with while my parents were in Africa. Christmas Eve was really our special family time. We would go to our church's Christmas Eve service and return home to open most of our presents. And only saved stockings for Christmas morning.
Here, it's all about the fireworks. So it messes up all our old traditions. Since I have a pyromania family, this is not a sad trade off for them. But this momma misses the old traditions. We did get to go to a candlelight service Sunday night with our church. I so appreciated that. But since we get home around 1:00 a.m. after viewing the midnight fireworks overlooking the city at our friends house, we don't open up gifts nor sleep around the tree anymore on Christmas Eve. We were probably about to lose that tradition anyway with so many teenagers in the house.
This year, our kids didn't wake up until 9:00. We opened gifts in our bedroom where there's the most light. Later Meg asked why we didn't open them by the tree down in the living room. Apparently that's important. Oops. I'll try to remember that next year.
While contemplating traditions lost and new ones formed, I've come to the conclusion that what's most important is what God thinks about it all...not me. Isn't this all about Jesus anyway? When we decided to follow God's leading in moving here, we were willing to make lots of sacrifices. Christmas traditions just happens to be one of them. One that I never thought of at the time. If at the end of the season, God is glorified and made greater in how we pass the season, than our mission is accomplished. Sure it looks different for us here. But we are used to different by now.
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