Does Christmas Have to END?

I do love to Christmas decorate. I do love Christmas trees. I do love Christmas carols. I do love Christmas treats. I do love Christmas books. I do love Christmas lights. I do love Christmas cocoa. I do love Christmas wrap. I even love the commercial Christmas. I do love the Grinch. I love the Polar Express. I also love putting it all away for the next year.

I don't love the empty feeling in my home when Christmas is finally all nestled away. Sure, there are always a few holiday items that manage to get left out, and yes, this bugs me to no end!! But, for me, the house has a certain coolness once all the warmth of Christmas had been quickly torn down and stuffed into the boxes once again.

I will miss the anticipation the children have for the arrival of jolly Old Saint Nick, the excitement the weeks prior to the big night, the magic twinkling in the children's eyes. I will miss the constant streaming of Christmas music and the constant struggle to reach a new level of Christian understanding, otherwise known as the Christmas Spirit. I will miss the lists and lists, the neighbors to think of, and those who graciously thought of us. I will miss the wrapping, the opening, and the thinking on that perfect gift. I will even miss the sore back and feet from the labor of wrapping and preparing every detail. I will also miss the financial planning for the gifts. I guess, I pretty much LOVE Christmas.

But above and beyond all the things I will cherish and now look back upon with sweet reminisce, will be the careful remembering of HIS birth. I feel a tremendous longing for this today. Of course; you may say, we can think on it all year round and YES we should, but never in quite the way we do from Thanksgiving through Christmas day. It seems that dreary fog of a week between Christmas Day and New Year's cries out to say, "Oh, poor Christmas!! It all has now passed and gone away!"

Why does Christmas have to end? Well, I guess it is much like a simple box of chocolates. Sooner or later the final morsel will leave its wrapper. Unfortunately, those chocolates seem to find a way to be remembered upon my hips, while Christmas quietly decks the halls in the far corners of my heart.

For now, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for what a warm Holiday we have experienced. We feel especially blessed with our new gift, Norine Ann. I will always remember this very Christmas. We had a special guest, my mother, here on that sacred day. This made my Christmas the best Christmas ever.

Does Christmas have to end? Of Course NOT!! The Spirit of this Holy day can and should remain with me always. So, as everyone sets out and sets up goals for a brand new year. I simply say this for me, "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try keep it all the year!!"

I love Christmas.

Christmas never has to end. The Son of God did come as promised, and He will come again to rule and reign FOREVER!

I know this to be true!!!! Happy New Year!!!