Christmas Eve

White Christmas

When I woke up this morning it was raining. When I left for work, the rain had turned to sleet. It took me an hour to make a drive that normally takes 20 minutes. When I got here the sleet on the metal roof and sky lights was pretty loud, and the wind that makes its way into the warehouse around the loading dock doors was causing the door from to warehouse to the office space to slam periodically.

In the last 15 minutes I have noticed that it got quiet. Silent even. I went and looked out the front door and the rain and sleet have turned to snow. It looks as though we will be having a white Christmas.

Snow on Christmas day is not something that is norm for me. I remember when I was in HS in Santa Fe sometimes we had snow in December, but I was usually in AZ at Christmas time. I can recall one Christmas Eve candle light service at First Christian in Tucson where we did have snow on Christmas Eve for about half an hour, but it did not stick, or last even until morning.

Kathleen reminds me of a snowy Christmas Eve that we flew to Fort Collins, Co on a small plane to spend Christmas with my Mom and Jenni. Have I mentioned Kat does not like flying, and the smaller the plane, the less she likes it? Probably not her favorite Christmas memory, although we often chuckle about the Christmas Eve service we attended that year. Jenni had chosen a church that had a service late enough that we could attend after our plane landed. When we got to the church they gave us an order of service and ushered us to our seat. Nothing in that service matched in any way shape or form to what was printed on the order of service. Note one song we sang was what was printed, and no one was announcing hymn numbers. When the printed sheet said prayer there was singing, when it was time to sing according to the paper there was a sermon. It was the most bizarre thing ever.

Another memorable in the same way Christmas Eve service Kat and I attended and First Baptist in Shawnee Oklahoma. Technically we were members of University Baptist Church at the time, but Kat had recently left the employment of the church under some pretty, well, let’s just say non-festive circumstances. So, rather than try and attend Christmas Eve services at the church we belonged to we went to FBC Shawnee. What we did not know was that JC Farrand, who was much beloved at that church, had planned this beautiful silent service. Lots of pretty candles, softly played Christmas Carols, and the congregation sat in silence and meditated on the scripture, then went to the front at your leisure and took communion, then left in silence when you were ready. It was beautiful, but not what we were looking for. Looking back of course, we have to laugh.

I got sidetracked here because I wanted to write about white Christmases. I will end with this small white Christmas tale. The year we did all the traveling over Christmas was a white Christmas in New Mexico and Colorado. We left Pojoaque Christmas morning and drove to Denver with my brother Ben. I even let him drive part of the way. I will never forget driving through the winding mountain roads in the snow; with Kat in the back seat gripping my shoulder with a vise grip of death (did I mention she doesn’t like driving in bad weather?). Ben was doing a great job of driving, and we were listening to Christmas music. At some point in the worst of the snow he turns to me and says “Brother, being with my family, driving in the mountains in the snow, listening to Elvis signing Christmas Carols, it just does not get any better than this!”

Merry Christmas, I hope everyone has a sweet Christmas eve and that tomorrow lives up to all your expectations.