Well it's been a week. Not a bad week. Not an exhausting week. But certainly a full week as we live each day through our personal lives, our professional lives, this Norman Rockwell Christmastime, and this Advent season that's moving step by step to a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
It's not quite a juggling act. For sure it's a supreme act of will to integrate each facet of the season into a singular experience. Certainly there's no way to describe the week without risking reducing it to the one piece of the puzzle I'm describing just then.
For example, we started in on "Home Alone" last Sunday night, continued it Monday night, finished it Tuesday night.
For sure there's some of the funniest laughs ever in there along with some of the sweetest moments. But that music, though. You know what I mean? "Somewhere In My Memory"??? It drives straight to the heart of the season and draws it out all around us like a warm blanket.
Monday was also part one of Kimmer's oral exams for her doctoral program, part one taking up five hours, and part two on Tuesday taking another five hours.
Monday was also post office day for me to make sure my thoughts about the postage I was about to deploy across forty-some Christmas cards was gonna be right. By the way, each time I go to a post office at this time of year I'm reminded of going to the Magnolia post office with my mom when I was a child and the central lesson you learn from that experience is don't go to the post office in December. The lines are crazy with people and the packages of every size they want to send out into the world.
Maybe the lines seemed atrocious at the time because I was small. Maybe my expectations have changed. Maybe I'm just more chill than my childhood self. I don't mind lines anymore. As an adult I never had that childhood outrage at those people and all their packages. 😉
On Tuesday I mailed out the International Christmas cards, about ten of them. On Wednesday around noon I mailed out the domestic ones, about thirty-two of them. I actually assembled the thirty-two the night before.
Assembled?
Yeah. A card with handwritten message. A Christmas letter folded in thirds then in half inserted into the card then the card slipped into the envelope. Then an address label affixed. Then the return address label. Then the stamp. Then moisten the back flap and close it. Then affix a Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas seal in the center where the flap attaches to the body of the envelope.
So yeah. Assembled.
I actually began the process Wednesday night and finished it kind of in the dark Wednesday morning after we lost power at 4AM. I finished the work under a single USB powered light balanced above the dining room table.
On Wednesday, too, I visited the grave site of an old Bible school teacher I had as a child and with whom I maintained a connection as an adult. So much so that even though she passed away in 1994, I still visit the grave site each year with a card and a poinsettia.
Wednesday night we start in on Elf. Wednesday night we also read the Christmas cards we received so far whilst we sit up in bed.
Thursday night we attend the Christmas concert at Linzy's old high school, Archbishop Murphy High School. The experience is a lovely and lively combination of secular and non-secular music that provides the opportunity to catch up with Linzy's former band director and his wife along with Linzy's former choir director. ☺️
Later that night we enthusiastically indulge the Veronica Mars season one Christmas episode titled "An Echolls Family Christmas". Definitely not your typical nor traditional Christmas story. 🤔🤯😁
Friday night we finish Elf. Saturday night we start Christmas with the Kranks. Friday and Saturday I also take down the fall decorations adorning our tree along with our living room and dining room, making the space ready for the official Christmas decorating Kimmer has in mind as she slips out of doctoral mode and charting mode during these last weeks, these last days of 2025. Speaking of which, Friday and Saturday we also back 'n forth with friends about when we're gonna hang out this season: their place on New Year's Eve. ☺️
Saturday, we're strategizing some hand-made gifts for those deareset to us. I'm also catching up on the Advent readings running through Psalm, Matthew, Isaiah, Matthew, Isaiah, and John. It's narrative in a nut shell that bounces between prophecy, death, and birth, never allowing context to be lost in the celebration toward which we approach.
And so on.
Of course I can only write about these experiences sequentially when, in fact, they are bundled threads moving through each moment of each hour of each day simultaneously.
Everything.
Everywhere.
All at once.
That's very much on point for the season we're experiencing.
And the week upon which we embark.
🙂
