Christmas lead up part 2...on a happier note

Well, it's only 1 week till Christmas (surprisingly!) and things are really rolling now! I'm excited, a little busy and even a tad unorganised...but excited none the least!

So what's exciting me about Christmas??? Well, it's not just the fact that I've been able to buy those that I love presents that I believe they will enjoy, and it's not just that I have a beautiful Christmas tree set up, or even that I have lights decorating my the outside of my house. It's not just the fact that I have had a chance to make a bunch of pretty Christmas cards or spend time with people I'm getting to know at various Christmas parties, and it's not just the carols that are playing everywhere. It's also not just the fact that this saturday night I get to sing Christmas carols with a couple of hundred people or so and see fireworks or the possibility of playing Mary in the nativity scene with Chris & Hamish on Tuesday night out the front of church...

So what is really exciting me about Christmas...the fact that I'm being reminded about the true gift of Christmas. I was thinking about this yesterday. People say that the true gift of Christmas, that is, the reason for the season, is Jesus being born and just leave it there but I came to realise yesterday that that is only part of the gift...if we could relate it to a tangable gift we might be given, it would be like receiving a torch without the batteries. Until we put batteries into the torch, it won't work and we'll be left in the dark. So, the Christmas story ending with just Jesus' birth also leaves us in the dark...we need to know that Jesus didn't stay a baby, but grew into a man...a perfect man...who not only taught us great things about who he was, that is, God's Son, but who died on the cross so that he could take the punishment that we deserved for all the times we reject God, rose again THREE DAYS later and then went up to heaven to sit where he deserves to sit...at God's right hand in heaven on a throne because he is the KING...he's my King!

So that's why I'm so excited about Christmas and it's lead up...I'm loving the thought that I can have a public celebration to show my thankfullness to God's great plan to save humanity!!!

Christmas Lead Up

I love Christmas...I love the excitement, the decorating, the food, the joy that seems to fill the air, and I'm even brave enough to say that I love the presents (both giving & receiving) and most of all, I love the promise of HOPE that it brings.
BUT, in saying all that, this year hasn't been such an easy lead up to Christmas for me. Complications that arose for me health wise after Hamish was born have meant that I'm yet to do any Christmas shopping, put up the tree & decorations (which, normally, I would've done yesterday) and frankly the whole situation has made me a little bit blue so I haven't been able to embrace the excitement yet.
Hopefully things are on the up now and I may be able to make it to the shops to do some shopping and planning events that make Christmas so much fun!!
Maybe I need to put on a Chrissy CD and make some decorations??

A bit of a depressing rant I know, sorry...hopefully in a week or two I'll be able to post an up-beat joyful note!!!