I was determined this year to 1. make a lot of special Christmas memories without 2. manufacturing a lot of stress. So I tried to start planning early, we made a family list of things we wanted to do (most of which we got to do), and we actually started doing our Advent calendar on time. The only thing I wanted to add was a Jesse tree, you know, to really cement for the kids how the birth of Christ was the fulfillment of all we read about in the Old Testament. How could this go wrong? Well, December the 1st came quicker than I was ready for it and I had put off making the Jesse Tree ornaments I had rather hastily printed off of the blog of someone more organized than me. In my mind we were going to be listening to Christmas music, all calming coloring the ornaments together while contemplating the incredible story of Christmas. Here is how it actually played out:
December 1st is here and we have to start the Jesse Tree TODAY.
As soon as the kids get home from school I order them to make snacks and start coloring.
The kids decide to make nachos. Greasy, greasy nachos.
They eat the greasy nachos while sort of coloring, leaving grease stains on the ornaments.
Oliver is whiny and insists on siting in my lap, where he spills his drink all over the table with the uncolored and now greasy ornaments.
I get all frustrated with the lack of enthusiasm, the grease, the spilled drink, and the huge mess that is now my kitchen.
Kevin comes home to a mess and I rush to get dinner.
We finish dinner and I say "time to do the Advent" (only a few of the ornaments are actually done, but hey, one day at a time...also the ornaments are pretty tacky and we lost one).
Kevin asks for the scripture for the first ornament.
I wait with anticipation to see the spiritual lights go off in my children's minds.
Kevin reads the verse, which went something like this. "God made Adam."
That was it. All the work and all the mess for that. Anticlimactic doesn't really even begin to describe it. No burst of light. No spiritual reflection. Just a flimsy little hand colored Adam ornament and a verse that took 2 seconds to read.
Thankfully, I found this to be pretty funny. A sort of comical stripping down of all my best laid plans, of all the things I try to do to "make Christmas happen," of all the ways I try to be in control of things--when in reality what my children will hopefully remember (as I do) is the stuff no one planned, the things that just happened without a lot of effort or lists. Like the lights on the tree at night, the anticipation of Christmas morning, the reading of the Christmas story, the last minute gift wrapping, being together with family, the renewed wonder that our God would come as a baby. And maybe they will remember too, probably with some laughter, the greasy flimsy Jesse Tree ornaments and my hopeless efforts to make our Christmas happen when the real one happened long ago without any of my lists or planning or involvement.
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