Signs It Is Christmas Time...or It's On Its Way!

Just got my schedule for tech volunteer for Christmas Eve services, Dec. 23 and 24. Yahoo! I love helping at Christmas Eve church! Now I'm excited for Christmas. Evidently, my enthusiasm for that time of year is only slightly behind every retail establishment in America, judging from commercials and store displays. Oh, the irony of perspectives around the advent and celebration of the birth of Jesus, God's invitation to relationship. The spectrum between joy and delight in the sacred and cultural traditions all the way to the other end -- the dread, exhaustion, and pressure of expectations and fear of or realized disappointment on the other end. Truly an emotionally complicated time of year for us, unless we center ourselves in what matters most and embrace our own limits of time, money, and presence (not presents).