Merry Christmas Bloggers! Or is it Blogg-ees? At any rate…IT’S CHRISTMAS Y’ALL! We at the GB office are OVER THE MOON these days. Christmas music has been blaring since the Monday after Thanksgiving, Christmas cards are addressed, stamped and sealed, and we are taking a little trip to the cottage attic to snatch up our office Christmas tree….TODAY!! Have I mentioned: IT’S CHRISTMAS Y’ALL!!
In the Box house, our traditions are wide and varied. So I thought it would be fun to share our traditions and maybe look for a new one we can engage in! SO. I have spent a few minutes (errr, HOURS!) on Pinterest, chatting with friends and brainstorming to find you a few fun traditions that you might want to rip off, personalize and call your own! SO…let the merriness commence with the FIRST Box Family Tradition…
PRE-CHRISTMAS CAROLING
This is by FAR one of my favorite activites as a child. Growing up near Chicago, we’d bundle up just to walk outside….and the evening would take on a magic of it’s own as Christmas lights glittered, mimicking the stars in the sky. We’d crunch through frosty grass as crisp air lent a silence to the evening. So it was with an almost reverence that we’d walk into the local nursing home. We’d go around 6:30..late enough that they’d be done with dinner and early enough that all the folks would only be napping before bed. And we’d walk down the halls, stopping to sing a few favorite carols when someone would pop their head or wheelchair out of a door. I loved the way tears would well up in a man’s eyes as he remembered Christmas’s gone by…or the loneliness on a woman’s face that was exchanged for a smile as she realized she had not been forgotton.
When I was young, the words of the songs stuck in my brain with an almost alien foreignness. The drummer boy’s “rapumpumpumpumpum” was more of a tongue twister than a meditation; I’d belt out “Oooooooooreos in eggshells” instead of “Gloooooorious in excelsis”; And I’d occasionally try to slip in a “Jingle Bells” when the more sedate carols were called for. But the song that always caught my mischevious girl attention was “What Child is This.” It was sung with such eery beauty….I’d sing it with the innocence of a child, only thinking of the sweet little baby Jesus, not the adult Jesus that would endure unspeakable violence for my rebellious heart. My young heart was an old soul, wooed by the sweetness of God made man.
When we piled back into the car, Swiss Miss cocoa in hand from the nursing home cafeteria, we were all subdued. And it was clear what Christmas was all about.
And so it is in light of these who are “not to be forgotten” and the way The Shepherd Baby spoke to my nascent soul that I advocate: carol y’all! It’s good for the lungs, the bleeding heart…and it feeds your soul.
Do YOU carol? Any stories to share (humorous or heart-warming)? Are you a first-timer this year and need some tips? Post below and we’ll all share with the joy of the season…
IT’S CHRISTMAS Y’ALL!!!
Love you…
annetta
AND…. the winner for the Target gift card is… MIRANDA:
Haven’t started shopping and probably won’t until after Christmas because of the complexity of things with my family, but I still have joy!
Yay!! Miranda, email us at info@goingbeyond.com and tell us your address so we can ship the gift card to you.
For those of you who didn’t win, don’t despair. We will have another give-a-way on Monday =)
