Day 24: Christmas Eve
It’s Christmas Eve! One of the joys of having kids is seeing Christmas thru their eyes – watching them during the holidays you remember your own childhood and the magic and excitement that Christmas brought. Christmas Eve for my family meant Christmas Eve mass, food afterwards with family & friends, and getting to open a few Christmas presents.
Amongst all of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season – the shopping, wrapping, running from place to place we rarely take a moment to sit back and soak it all in.
This Christmas I challenge you to take a moment during all of the madness to sit back (literally), and look around. Look at the people you’re surrounded by and take a moment to soak in the decor. Think about all of the people and all of the hands it took to create the food, to wrap the presents, to decorate the tree. When you open a gift think about the person that bought it – how long it took them to pick it out, the money they spent on it, the time it took to decorate it. When all is said and done, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of work to make it all happen. The reward is that looking back a few years from now you’ll remember all of the good and not the bad. You’ll have memories and photos that last a lifetime – that is the true reward.
If you believe in the Christ in Christmas, then that is definitely something you want to take a moment to reflect on as well. For me, Christmas Eve mass was always that grounding point during the season of internal quiet and calm that brought the entire season together. As hard as we try, religion can get pushed aside even when a season is meant specifically for that. Doing some sort of charity work during the holidays always helps to keep that as a reminder – you can ring a bell for the salvation army, donate to toys for tots, volunteer at a soup kitchen or visit a nursing home. The more giving you do, the more you will be reminded what the entire season is meant for – and that will bring you more happiness then anything else.
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