Morning will Become Day

Its Christmas eve. Outside cars and lawns and roofs are frosted with ice. Slowly as neighbors are coming to life smoke lifts from the chimneys and mingles with the fog. The frost melts from the roofs to make a blotchy collage. Hopefully those that work are fortunate to have the day off, it has been a quiet morning for me, so far, with our 8 month old. Drinking coffee and playing with toys and dreading the progression of the day. This is my favorite time. This quiet slice of peace that is inserted on lazy days. I don't dread Christmas eve, itself, just the day in general. If i had my druthers it would stay morning and my coffee always hot but the morning will become day and life will run its hectic course. As days go, though, i like Christmas eve a great deal.


Christmas eve has always stood out to me for what ever reason. I remember one unseasonably warm Christmas eve where i rode my bike to my grandmas in anticipation of the days feast of Swedish meatballs, lefse, and the rest i honestly don't remember, i think that may have been all i ate. Then presents with my dads family accompanied by plates of cookies and pie and glasses of coke and 7-up. As i got older and started working part time jobs, i landed in a local ski shop and Christmas eve was a commission maker! But at the end of the day one of the other employees dads would bring in home brew and Reuben loaf and we would have a pre-feast and celebration. Christmas eve is the pre-funk and it builds the anticipation of Christmas. The giddy anticipation that, as a child, kept me up late and got me up early, and as an adult keeps me up late and gets me up early.

As the month of December has progressed i have gone through a myriad of emotions to reach this calming excitement. The upheaval of learning that a job, fairly or unfairly, has become temporary, the stress of realizing that the dependable income has vanished, the panic of what to do, the depression that comes with impending unemployment...This mass of chaotic life stuff had spread thick over my mind but in the past week it has been siphoned away.

It is the season, i am sure, Christmas is something for me to look forward to. It isn't the gifts, this will be a humble Christmas for us, it is the anticipation of the incarnation and joy that we can bring to our children and knowledge that for a day, at the least, the hearts of the people at large are generally filled with genuine good will.


I am several things but among them i am an optimist and a sentimentalist and Christmas lends itself to such emotions as these.