the gift of time

This is one of my favorite times of the year...not really the time of Christmas itself, which I do love, but more specifically the season of Advent. This season of prepraring for the birth of Jesus. I love it when the Advent wreath is lit in church and hearing about the journey of Mary and Joseph and every year imagining what it must have been like for them.

I have been lucky enough to be pregnant multiple times during my life and I can honestly say that I love it! I am one of those awful people that don't get morning sickness and I just love every minute of carrying a child...OK, maybe not EVERY minute. Towards the end, I'm pretty done. Its time for someone else to hold the baby. I like being able to bend over...so sue me. Since having these experiences myself, it puts a whole new perspective on Mary and Joseph traveling and having to spend the night in a barn. I don't think so!! I can only imagine the words that were exchanged between Mary and Joseph as they were making their way to the stinky stable...there is probably a good reason why that conversation didn't make it into the Gospel. :)

This Advent Season has been particularly moving for me this year. I think it has to do with what has been happening in my family's life since last Christmas. Most significantly, last Christmas dinner was spent in Waffle House driving to Athens to say good-bye as our beloved Uncle Dave unexpectedly passed away. In May of this year my Grandpa also passed away quite unexpectedly. And lastly, this past October, while preparing to celebrate the wedding of my brother and lovely sister-in-law, we suffered from a miscarriage and lost our baby at 4 months. All of these events were quite shocking to me and seemed somewhat surreal. I have only lost 2 family members since I was in 7th grade...until this year.

So this year for Christmas my list is quite different then in years past. For a while I've been asking the grandparents to scale back a bit because our house is small and I want to teach our kids about giving and not getting... and those are great reasons to really have to think about gifts instead of just "getting things". But this year I am asking my people to scale back because really if you have to pay money to get me the gift---you haven't gotten what I want.

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE PRESENTS! I love surprises and I love it when someone is thoughtful enough to include me on their list (please don't cross me off quite yet). What I really want this Christmas is more time. More time to get to know you. I want to know what makes you tick, what makes you laugh. I want time with my family and friends doing things that makes us happy or just doing things that need to be done. A few weeks ago my aunt and uncle traveled from Jacksonville and helped clean out my garage. I had great fun spending time with them and something got done that needed to be done. Perfect.

Time is something that can't be made...it can only be given to others. I guess we never really know what the next year will hold. Next Christmas, I'm sure, my family and friends will all be at different places in their lives...some very unexpected. I would give anything to be able to have more time with our Uncle Dave, my grandpa, and, of course, our baby...but I also know that they are in a much better place now.

Let's go to lunch. Hey! Come to our house for dinner. We could chat on the phone in our jammies. Get me a book that speaks to you. Send me a picture of your family with an update on your life. Let me share your life...truly that is all I want this year. Time is very limited and precious and everyone in my life is precious to me, as well. I hope that everyone that reads this knows how much they mean to me and my family. You all continue to touch our lives in different ways and I am so thankful for the time that we get together--there is usually not enough of it---life is so busy and go, go, go... Thanks for taking the time to read this...