Twelve Days of Christmas to Stretch
How thankful I am that many Christian church calendars allow Christmas to stretch over twelve days–disappointing otherwise all that build up and over in one day. It reminds me of the effect of lighting a traditional Christmas pudding–a brilliant combustion of energy once flame pairs with fruit-laden and brandy-soaked pudding. The desert illuminates with an awesome but sadly short display.
But twelve days to absorb Christmas is a welcome gift making it possible to break from all the chores: cooking, cleaning, shopping, and entertaining. I am relieved. Twelve days signals time to rest, linger and reflect on the Christmas flame alight but muted in my heart. I have time to poke the fire–to make come alive the gift of God in a manger and read within the flickering light what that means.
I draw up my easy chair by the fire cocoa in hand.
Above exert from a December 28th 2016 blog post “The Launch of the Twelve Days of Christmas” and rewritten (refer: http://carolinmparadis.com/2016/12/28/the-launch-of-twelve-days-for-christmas/).
The Days of Christmas
Christmas Day 1: On Christmas day I reflect on the light that burns in the heart of home. At the centre of the Christmas miracle is the intimate simplicity of a family gathered at the birth of a child–mother, father and child.
I feel that intimacy in my home as we awake on Christmas morning. The house is ready, the long wait over. The expected has arrived. There is a sense of space opening and an invitation to enter a timeless moment, God inviting us to be with him and each other. As we gather around the Christmas tree to greet one another with hugs, kisses and Merry Christmas wishes it feels complete. God has arrived in our hearts as we embrace Christ and Christ in each other.
Christmas Day 2: Boxing Day is the party after Christmas day. Christmas day includes immediate family and Boxing Day widens the circle to embrace extended family and friends. There is always a large gathering where the hosting alternates yearly between cousins.
It seems the grace received on Christmas Day is just too big and not contained. It bursts forth overflowing in joyful abundance sweeping into its wake this extended gathering.
Christmas Day 3: My day to chill and do gentle tidying but not too much. An aura lingers from the last two days that I need time to absorb.
The increased social exchanges and reconnection with friends and family cracked open doors revealing places of pain and distress but also deep love and hope. The light and the dark juxtapose at odd angles. I have a lot to process and pray about.
Christmas Day 4: Day four of Christmas is an adventure. My husband and I thrill at the Christmas gift from our daughter but two-day passes finds us anxious at the peak of a slope at Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ontario. With skis strapped to our feet a dense cloud covers the mountain, the wind whips the snow and visibility is a foot. We have not skied in six years; joy and terror greet us in equal measure.
Christmas Day 5: Day five of Christmas is a back-to-work day. It has that between two worlds feel to it. The Christmas holidays aren’t over but regular stuff still needs attending.
I’m waiting for the Bell technician to show up to install a business telephone and fax line in my house as I start a part-time contract job on January 2nd. Within five minutes of each other two technicians arrive. There is confusion about the order. The first technician tells me the other man will install the jack. I give him a bag of homemade shortbread cookies as he leaves and wait for his colleague to come back. For the next half an hour I peek out my front window to see the fellow sitting in his truck and wonder when he will come in the house. My last check shows no truck in sight. Too bad, he missed out on fine shortbread cookies.
It’s important the line gets installed and I should be upset but I’m not. I wonder if the experience is a continuing effect emanating from the Christmas cradle. I am at peace.
Christmas Day 6: It is a regular business day but feels more like a celebration. The current contract incumbent hands over equipment and supplies, her leg in the journey completed she passes me the baton of responsibility.
My husband and I greet Erin and Oliver as they arrive at our house with a loaded van full of more equipment and supplies than expected. Just having cleaned up from a major house renovation my office set-up is behind leaving me anxious. I don’t feel completely ready to receive the load. But chaos is a common theme this year and anxiety not new. Grateful for Erin and Oliver’s help the four of us unload the van in relay style.
With boxes everywhere Erin reviews the inventory with me while Oliver assures the electronic equipment is set-up and functional. Although he and my husband met briefly once they chat with ease. There is a quiet undertone of joyful camaraderie. It doesn’t feel like work at all.
The effect of the Christmas manger continues, joy and fellowship seep into the day. I host a loaded Christmas luncheon as a thank you to Erin and Oliver. After the working we sit for several hours relaxing with drink and chatting. For people we don’t know well they feel like family. It must be the Christ light burning gently but strongly.
Day six of Christmas unfolds in celebration honouring the old and welcoming the new as our lives transition.
Christmas Day 7: More business but different. I inhale the quiet in the church office doing my duties as the church Treasurer preparing for this year’s end and next year’s budget. This, too, feels transitional, betwixt and between, finalizing the old while preparing the new.
Day seven of Christmas signals to account and sum my year and prepare for the next. Day seven is God’s gift of time to pause and measure.
Christmas Day 8: Today I receive the gift of being hosted. It wasn’t meant to be that way. I had invited two of our friends to share New Year’s at our place and planned assorted nibbles. A phone call reversing the venue to their place so they could drive a teenage son to work paid at time-and-a-half relieved me of a back-breaking day spent in the kitchen. What a joy to relax and receive splendid hospitality.
Christmas Day 9: Today I feel strengthened by the preceding eight days of Christmas having received the loving touch of family and friends, slivers of joy, peaceful pauses, and the hope inherent in new transitions.
The year 2017 was unusual and difficult. An uncommon chaos touched many friends, family and acquaintances sparing few (refer: http://carolinmparadis.com/2017/10/22/blog-uncommon-chaos-churning/).
But out of chaos comes creation.
To be continued…