Friday, of course, was Christmas Eve, so we sat around the house and got some stuff ready for Christmas day, then had delicious stew (made by Wes) and went off to the two services. Mom and I sang and everyone seemed to enjoy that. It was nice to have a service that was out of the ordinary, as well. At some point, we watched one of our traditional movies: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Christmas day was fantastic, of
course. Wes and I started it off by making homemade cinnamon rolls for everyone, then Mom and I woke Josiah up--otherwise Christmas would have started at about 3 p.m. We opened all our presents, which was a good time. We did a combination of free-for-all Cain style and the OCD version of Christmas we had at my house. Christmas dinner was wonderful, and then we just sat around watching TV, the most important being A Christmas Story.We were supposed to go show the family around Princeton on Sunday, but it started snowing at about 10 a.m. and didn't stop until yesterday morning. The wind was blowing so much that our yard has about 2 feet of snow in some places and no snow in others. It's ridiculous. Instead of going to Princeton, we spent yesterday and Sunday playing Wii, watching movies, and reading. It was fun, but relaxing, which is always great for a vacation. I found out that my mom is actually decent at the Wii, which was pretty surprising. We also ventured out for dinner on Sunday, which wasn't too bad until Mom tried to park the car in the garage. Our driveway is uphill
and we had about 6 inches of snow in it by then, so she narrowly avoided hitting the garage a couple of times and it took us about 15 minutes to actually go inside once we got home. Good times.Now, we're sitting around waiting for Dad to show up. He was supposed to be here by now, but got stuck for 2 hours on the Pennsylvania turnpike. It made me glad that we aren't actually traveling anywhere this year. It's too much work. Lol.
Wes: So the other day, one of my best friends, who will remain anonymous (Ryan Anderson), sent me a message on facebook, asking me what was more important: the birth of Christ or the death of Christ. We had a very interesting conversation, starting with another anonumous friend (Jackie Rodriguez), who talked about how she saw the death of Christ as what was most important. Ryan replied that he thought the birth of Christ was the most important. Then I finally jumped in with my two bits, saying that the resurrection was the most important. Half-way through writing it, though, I realized that this is a which-deathly-hallows-is-best question, just like on Harry Potter. Some will hold that the birth of Jesus is the most important, because nothing could have happened without the birth. Some hold that the death of Christ is the most important, because it is the sacrifice of Christ that saved us from our sins. Some hold that the resurrection of Christ is the most important, because we participate with Christ in His resurrection and are made a new creation.
I don't think that having the answer is necessarily important, but I do think it is important to realize that none of them are as important on their own as when they are held together. It is absolutely amazing that God took on flesh and took the title of "God-with-us." That God loved us enough to become one of us is unbelievable. The fact that God showed God's love again by dying in our place is awe-inspiring. That the grave was not strong enough to hold our Lord is worth celebrating over and over and over again. The salvation of humankind is not found in just one of these acts, but in all of them.
Relient K does a really good job of reminding us of this fact. I loved that on Christmas, I could get on facebook and see around fifty statuses (statii?) that all quoted my favorite Christmas song, Celebrate the Day: "I celebrate the day that You were born to die so I could one day pray for You to save my life." It shows me that even in this world that tries so hard to take Christ out of Christmas and make the holidays a commercialized product, people still know and hold to the true meaning of Christmas. It is about celebrating the birth of Christ while at the same time remembering just why God chose to take on flesh.
On a completely unrelated note, Jessica got me my very own chalice and paten for Christmas. (For those of you who don't know what a chalice and paten are, they are the cup and plate used to hold the bread and wine during communion). I feel all pastor-like, now, because I'm not only getting grown-up gifts like sweaters and books, but I'm getting vocational-esk gifts as well. The only thing that I didn't get that would have made this first-real-Christmas-as-an-adult better would have been if I had gotten a cheesy Christmas tie or sweater. Oh well. There's always next year.
Well, we hope that you enjoyed your Christmas and that you are enjoying your four calling birds (shout out to 12 days of Christmas). Goodbye, and goodnight!
You stay classy, World Wide Web!
-Jess and Wes
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