All in Christmas
Oh, the sights, sounds, fragrances, tastes, and textures of my Czech family Christmases! Clove-studded oranges. Fresh, sappy, evergreen boughs bound into garlands and wreaths. Almond crescents, colorful lights, flannel stockings, crunchy peanut brittle. Fresh-baked hoska (braided sweet bread). Hot chocolate. Roasted chestnuts. Christmas caroling outside our front door. I didn’t yet understand most of the carols, but I sang along.
In my first childhood home, our freshly cut Christmas tree stood in the middle of a platform of two four-by-eight-foot panels hinged together. Attached to the platform lay a figure-eight train track. My older brother crafted scenery, a town, and papier-mache mountains with tunnels to scale. We enjoyed many hours playing and trying to keep the cat from chasing and derailing the train! A few presents were placed on the floor next to the train display. As a traditional Czech family, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with a meal of homemade barley soup.
Dad had a particular order for decorating our Christmas tree. First, secure the tree in its stand and wrap it with strands of multicolored, large-bulbed lights all pointing up. Then he and Mom draped aluminum foil garland in perfect arcs that alternated between high and low points from top to bottom at each level. Once the garland was placed, my brothers and I were allowed to add some ornaments, if they were evenly spaced and hung from branches—not the garland or lights. We worked in solemn silence. Mom and Dad gently secured antique, fragile glass ornaments around the top branches. The final step was to grab lots of foil tinsel and place it over the garland, so each piece was straight and untangled. After Christmas, we tediously removed the tinsel strands and packed them back in their designated boxes for use the following year.
After our family tree was decorated sixties-style and the felt tree skirt lay around the stand, our nativity set and stable were unwrapped and placed on the handcrafted stereo cabinet. Joseph, Mary, an angel, a couple of shepherds, animals, and three kingly-type men with gifts gathered around baby Jesus in a manger. This replica of an ancient historic scene was merely a part of our Christmas holiday decorations. But who were these people? I wondered through the years. Who was Jesus? Why do we celebrate His birth? Traditional carols gave me a clue, but not much else
For some reason, I was allowed to choose the family Christmas tree when I was about eleven years old. We planned a Saturday in early December—packed a sack lunch, poured hot chocolate into the Thermos, bundled up, and piled into our late-model station wagon.
Wow! What an amazing meeting between two women whom the Lord was using!
Earlier in Luke, we can read about angels appearing to both women’s families to
announce their pregnancies. Both were susceptible to the temptations of stress, fear,
or worry, especially considering Elizabeth’s age (geriatric pregnancy), yet she is filled
with joy and humbled favor for what God had done and was doing through the birth of
our Lord.
Whew, time for bed. What a Christmas day it had been. Up at 6—grandma, it’s time to see if Santa’s been here—followed by the Christmas story, stockings, breakfast, gifts, lunch, more presents, play, dinner, more play, exhaustion. It’s time to lay down those sleepy heads.
Dear Lord,
I do not understand. That night I saw the sky and heard the angel’s song—but I have so far to come in my faith. When I entered the cave and saw You in your mother’s arms, I saw the miracle of new life. It was an amazement to see a newborn child among the barnyard animals.
Dear Lord Jesus,
I turned over the calendar and it was official: countdown to Christmas. Before me whirled visions of shopping for the perfect gift at just the right price, addressing and sending out Christmas cards, shopping, decorating the house, rushing to programs and parties, shopping, baking and cooking special treats and, of course, shopping. Lord, give me the strength to keep up with all my blessings! But more than that: make this year different.
It went with her everywhere… my daughter’s baby blanket was her security for years. They did everything together. She even named it “Bobbie.” When the blanket was over-loved, I repaired it several times. Eventually, it was packed in a family memory box.
It was late at night when I received one of those dreaded phone calls. My son told me that his three-week old daughter was lethargic and in respiratory distress. They were at a hospital emergency room in the Dallas, Texas area.
