Endearing-Christmas 2005

Growing up is hard. People say that all the time, I know. But it really is. I went home for Christmas this year, like I would do every year. I took off 3 days using my PTO (paid time off) - don't get me started - and I drove 35 miles to my parents house. I viewed it as a mini-break. Very mini compared to the month we get in college, but none-the-less still a break. Everyone at work couldn't believe that I would use the time I earned during my last few months and take off 3 days at Christmas...they are all into saving PTO for a big vacation. Well not me...I'm using my PTO. And I'm glad that I did...

It's nice to go home. There is just something about going back to your roots even for a few days...where things are always where they were - silverware is where your mom has always put it, the Christmas dishes are out, your room is the same that you left it, the smell is the same it has always been, you make Christmas cookies, we decorate them, my dad and I do last minute shopping and wrapping, and the same ornaments go on the tree. This year there was a debate for me on where I would attend Christmas Eve service. My church - only 20 minutes from my parents - was having a Christmas Eve service in lieu of Sunday morning. Then my parents' church - the church I grew up in - was having one also...this is the one we always go to. I desperately didn't want to go for so many reason, but a small part of me did want to go for one big reason - familiarity and the fact that it was part of home. I decided to go with my parents.

There wasn't a lot of people I knew at the service we chose to go to, but it was familiar. My favorite part of Christmas Eve is when we all stand and sing Silent Night together with lit candles held up high. To this day I tear up and get chills. There is something about remembering that night and thinking of Jesus, the Light of the world, that is so precious to my heart. I go back to being 6 years old, standing there. There is just something so sacred about that time. The same family sings an old song playing stringed instruments and the congregation sings Silent Night every year. It is just what my heart understands.

So while I've come to desperately desire, and even like change, I learned something new this Christmas about the things that stay the same. The best way to describe them is endearing...

Thanks to Hannah C. and the girls I love so dearly, I understand the word endearing...it's things like finding Canadian flags after a year and frozen Dove chocolates that never get eaten...I like endearing, and I cherish those things in life that are...