First Christmas Married
Twas the week before Christmas and my life felt like chaos. Work was extra busy in the weeks before Christmas. First there was open enrollment for benefits, followed by compliance and HR classes to catch up, and some personnel changes. It was keeping me busy at work. My Mom went out of town for the week before Christmas and needed help to be able to host when she got back so I added her errands to my list. Thanks to football season, my Dad also needed some help so I tacked his stuff onto my list. There were presents to wrap, cards to send, goodies to deliver, and it felt like a never ending new list of things that ‘popped up’. I should of predicted this is how it would happen because I wrote my goal to be present for our first Christmas married. This shouldn’t be hard but I’m a yes person/doer by personality so the holidays are extra tough for me not to overdo/commit. Oh did I also mention I was trying to finish up the last of 200 books for the year?
I was determined to make Christmas Eve ‘our day’. It’s the day we protected from everything else as sacred, slow, and for us. We LOVE spending time with our families & friends but I wanted to make sure the entire weekend didn’t become a marathon of Christmas and our little family didn’t have any time of it’s own to celebrate the birth of our Savior and our first Christmas married. We decided we’d stay home, enjoy our day, go to the Christmas Eve service at church, then make a nice dinner in (a combo of our cooking). Then Sunday (Christmas Day) we’d go to our three family Christmases and celebrate our Savior with our people.
The plan was solid but then life happened. My families flight on Christmas Eve was cancelled. After Christmas Eve service Blake and I sat side-by-side at the kitchen table trying to find my Mom a way home for Christmas. It was stressful and we both felt guilty at being together, at home while my Mom spent Christmas Eve sleeping on the floor of an airport alone but eventually we decided we’d done what we could and we cuddled up and laughed to Elf (I forgot just how funny that movie is!).
Christmas Day we got to spend the morning with Blake’s parents, granny, and nephew Ashton opening presents and having a delicious breakfast. This was extra special for me since it’s my first Christmas as (an official) Biggs and my first Christmas morning with Blake’s family. We regrouped at the house briefly then headed to Uncle Frank & Aunt Darbi’s where we had a little time just our small family crew to do presents and then the whole family joined for a huge, amazing meal. Eventually with a full belly and heart I headed back to our side of town to prepare to pick up my older sister, Rachel, and her crew from the airport. With Mom still gone and Dad in Arizona for a game we were the welcome wagon. It was such a sweet relief to have the first 6 (of 11) family members in house - safe & healthy. Later that night (really the morning of the 26th) both of my parents made it home (with a Bucs win). And slowly but surely all started to feel right with the holiday again.
This is not the way any of us hoped the weekend would go but I’ll admit I felt overwhelmed with gratitude several times that my family was safe and healthy and that eventually we knew we’d be together and get to celebrate. Perspective is so important in situations like this and I did try to keep that central in my mind. This weekend was really about the birth of our humble Savior who also had a tough travel the weekend of Christmas and no room in the inn for him. Grateful today and everyday for the gift of salvation. Merry Christmas to all.
