12/31 Happy New Year!

Dec 31 – New year. New me. Time to make those New Year resolutions. Hmm.  “I resolve to lose weight.” Last year’s weight loss resolution was so successful that I gained more weight just so I could try again. Check. What else? Let’s try a more general resolution like “I resolve to be a better person.” Last year, I tried to be a better unicorn. Goal achieved, so this year, I’m up for a challenge. Better person it is. Check. “I resolve to resolve all my problems with Resolve.” Clean sweep for the New Year. Check. “I resolve to buy more Christmas socks before the end of 2014.” That one should be easy to keep, and I’ve given myself all year to achieve it. Check. I resolve to bring about “Peace on Earth” or at least wear socks about it. Check. I learned long ago that I can’t keep resolutions. Maybe some people can, but to me, a resolution is like setting myself up to fail. I don’t think that’s a good way to start a new year. I prefer to go into the New Year clueless. It’s messier and more organic than a list of resolutions, but I’ve found that I can’t force change. If I do, it won’t stick. So I like my change to come organically, welling up from the inside until it comes to the point where there’s nothing else I can do but make a change. There’s probably an easier way, but I’ve never done anything the easy way. That’s just not me. I’ve made some changes in 2013. They are changes that excite me, rather than ones that drag me down with worry about whether or not I’ll be able to keep them. When I slip up on my organic goals, I’m much more forgiving of myself. I think that’s because I’m ready for the changes I’m making, but I’m also happy with where I am in my life. I’m content. So this year, I’m just going to ride out the winter, continuing to make the changes that I can make, and awaiting the changes that the Good Lord has in store for me this year. Some will be good, some won’t, but I’m just going to keep on keeping on. The one change I’d really like to see for 2014 is “Peace on Earth” in places other than my socks. Happy New Year!

12/30 Cute Snowman

Dec 30 – I blew it yesterday and didn’t get anything posted, but since these socks are so cute, I slipped them back on for a minute and took a picture of them. Sometimes, life gets ahead of a person. That’s what happened yesterday. So my December 30th post is being posted on December 31^st, along with today’s post. Expectations are funny, aren’t they? If you were expecting a post from me yesterday, you might have been disappointed, but today you get two posts. Having to wait can have its own rewards. That’s all I wanted to say about my socks from yesterday. It would have been a shame to not show off the cute little snowman who was just hanging around on my socks. All right, Mr. DeMille, he’s ready for his close-up.

12/28 Evergreen Promise

This is a boring week. Even my socks are boring. Sure, they’re colorful, but the tree pattern is repetitious. It redundantly repeats over and over again without ceasing, unchanging. Yawn. Christmas is over. The excitement of The Day is gone. The presents have been unwrapped, the feast has been eaten. Only leftovers remain, if you’re lucky.  A day or two of rest in the refrigerator, and they’re better than the original meal. Christmas is winding down, as we begin to contemplate the coming New Year celebration. Come this time in another eleven months, we’ll be rushing around trying to secure a piece of holiday spirit for ourselves once again. It’s a roller coaster ride throughout the rest of the year. One thing remains constant, however, and that is that we are living in the time of the evergreen promise, that of salvation. Like evergreens that consistently retain their leaves in all four seasons, Christians can count on the assurances given by the baby in the manger and fulfilled on the cross. God will love us, without changing, throughout all the seasons of our lives. That’s the evergreen promise, and it’s always exciting.

 

12/27 A Matched Pair

This is a love story today. My hubs has been so wonderful and generous this Christmas. I’m a worrier. His thoughtfulness has gone a long way to relieve some of my worries. We live in a nice house, not a well-built house, but a nice house. It has its issues, and those issues worry me. Our bedroom light has been bad for some time. It’s a fan/light combination, and the light is not working. One of my presents this Christmas was Hubs making arrangements to have an electrician come and fix it. He researched electricians, made the call, set up the appointment. I didn’t have to lift a finger. Today, we drove to the far side of the city to look at lighting and bought a new fan/light fixture. It was a nice day together. I will miss him when his vacation ends with the New Year. After thirty-five years, I’m still touched by his thoughtfulness. We’re just like a matched pair of socks. It doesn’t matter what’s on the socks, as long as we’re a pair. He still surprises me as I unwrap the gift that is my husband year after year. I’m a lucky gal.

12/26 Plaid Penguins

Is anyone else as tired as I am? Hubs wanted to know if I wanted to go to a movie today or if I wanted to laze around the house. It was his fault. He gave me the option. So we lazed around the house today.  After the hectic yesterday, it was nice to sit, play with Christmas gifts and just relax. No big meal to prepare, no more presents to wrap, no more decorating to do, but frankly, I confess: I haven’t had enough Christmas yet. Even though Christmas Day was tiring, I’m not ready to let go of the good cheer that I saw this year. A kind clerk gave me $50 off a purchase of mine. I received a thank you from the Fedex guy for the cookies that I set out for him.  A neighbor offered to help clear our driveway of snow after church. We offered to take in their mail while they were away. I’m not ready to let go, so on go the Christmas socks once again, this time with plaid penguins for a few more days of good cheer before we all forget until next December.

12/25 Merry Christmas!

Presenting my Christmas Day socks. May the Present of God be present in your life every day throughout the coming year. Merry Christmas!

12/24 Teddy Bear Hugs

I was fourth in line in the fifteen or less lane in the grocery store on Christmas Eve day, but for some reason, each transaction was slower than the last. A friend of the lady in front of me cut line with her groceries, saying to me, “I’m with her.” Fine, I thought, no biggie. Charity begins in the grocery store. After a few minutes, Ms. I’m-With-Her motioned to a large man with booze to join them, with nary a glance at me. I was a bit, shall we say, miffed? It had been a long day, my back ached and still the line wasn’t moving. My savior was a clerk who motioned me over to the empty self-check lanes. “Ma’am, I can ring you through over here.” This sympathetic woman gave me a figurative cup of cold water. She rang up my purchases, wishing me a “Merry Christmas.” I said, “You were my Christmas present today.” We lifted each other’s spirits. On the way home, I realized that her kindness, even though she was only doing her job, felt like the comfort one gets from hugging a teddy bear. I guess I wore the right socks today.

12/23 Dots on Socks

Figuring out how to find meaning behind Christmas socks is sometimes a difficult task. Take, for example, the socks I have on today. They are perfectly fine socks with four different colors on a black background, but other than the colors, there’s nothing that relates them to the Christmas season. They’re just dots on socks. I suppose I could have compared the dots to the footprints of harried shoppers rushing here, rushing there, leaving behind nothing but their many tracks in the snow. Yeah, that analogy didn’t work for me either. Or I could say that they’re like round ornaments decorating a tree, although wouldn’t that mean that I’m calling my ankles tree trunks? Hmm, maybe not that either. Maybe the dots are actually representative of reindeer poop, but I really don’t know since I’ve never seen reindeer poop before. Santa’s pretty good about cleaning up after them. Then again, maybe they’re just dots on socks. Maybe they serve no other purpose than to remind us that Christmas doesn’t need to be about anything more than God’s son lying in a manger. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

12/22 Gold Snowflakes

Dec 22 – After driving through unplowed streets to church this morning, I wasn’t feeling very loving. I knocked off the snow that clung to my striped socks with gold snowflakes and took my seat. When the Advent candle was lit in the service, this carol ran through my mind: “Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, love divine; Love was born at Christmas, Stars and angels gave the sign.” This popular Christmas song was originally a poem written by English poet Christina Rosetti in 1885. She used the word “love” eleven times in three verses. How perfect for the fourth Sunday of Advent! Today, we lit the love candle, completing the circle of the four. The only one left is the Christ candle, appropriately situated in the center of hope, peace, joy, and love. As Rosetti reminds us in her poem, love arrived in the form of the baby Jesus. The magi followed a sign, but we no longer have to look for one because our sign is Jesus, and Jesus is Love Alive. This is the truth about Christmas. Like the Advent wreath, Christ stands at the center, waiting for us to receive His love on Christmas Eve.

12/21 Drunken Rudolph

Presenting drunken Rudolphs, the socks that started my Christmas sock obsession. Unfortunately, Rudolph is going to that sock drawer in the sky because one of the drunken Rudolphs is missing his big red nose, thanks to a pull. I wore them to do last minute stuff at home. I added more ornaments to the tree, picked up around the house, strung my dad in the window. It wasn’t really my dad. It was a lighted Hallmark memorial ornament, only it didn’t want to light this year. After replacing a dead bulb with the only one that fit in the socket, my father now blinks at me from the kitchen window. It tickles me to see his smiling face blinking on and off, keeping me company. Family. Have you ever thought about whether Mary and Joseph had anyone with them during the start of their family? A midwife, maybe? One of Joseph’s relatives? That part of the story is missing. Where was their family? We’ll be missing our extended family this year. We live too far away, but they are in our hearts. Like my dad. He’s in my heart now and forever, although he’s never blinked at me before.