Contemplative......

I find myself in an awkward time of the year.  I want to spend time contemplating the celebration of Christ's birthday.  I enjoy thinking of the fond memories of Christmas' of the past.  The problem this year is that we are moving, like, closing on the house on December 23rd.....How is that for timing?  Do I decorate for Christmas; how do I NOT decorate for celebrating Christ's birthday?  I want to spend time enjoying this season but I HAVE SOOOO MUCH TO DO.  It's hard for me to be in both a "thinking/contemplative" season and a "running myself crazy with stuff to do" season.  We went to see an adorable "Christmasy" type play today and that got my brain to slow down and enjoy the moments.  We also went to a needy neighborhood and provided food and clothes to MANY people, some of which were homeless.  While standing outside on a street corner, it started to snow and snow and snow......Even facing the coldness, the people we were serving were singing stanzas of various Christmas Carols.  If they can be joyful in the snow, I should also be!  (Even though I could live my whole life without seeing a snowflake and never miss it.)  We called the big wet snowflakes coming down "flakes of sugar sweetening up the hot cocoa."  It was a blessed afternoon.  So, in the next few weeks, I'm going to try to remember both the play we saw and the needy people of the Phillip's neighborhood.  Hopefully I will remember these moments when I start running around frantically trying to accomplish everything at once.