Stephen Yeargin

It finally caught up to me. I can usually expect it a few days before Christmas, whether it is from walking around a mall listening to Kenny G soundalikes piped over bustling shoppers, or a made-for-TV special with melodramatic acting about the “true meaning of Christmas”. This year, it caught me halfway through the “Little Drummer Boy” performance during our church’s Christmas Eve service. Yes, I am finally in the Christmas spirit. Mostly.

That’s the thing: there is so much run-up to the holidays that it is easy to “miss” the subtleties that make the season special. We did not do a lot of decorating this year, taking only the items we had bought in years past out of the container and leaving some of our less-than-sentimental ornaments in their boxes. Our time off is great, but there is not a destination ahead of us, just our church and back to our apartment. There just are not many warm-and-fuzzy feelings to go around during the holidays.

The past year has been kind to us. Samantha got a new car (meaning that I no longer drive an aging minivan), I switched jobs and our health and finances are in good shape. And while 2010 packs its own set of challenges, 2009 has been fantastic. I may get stuck in a funk here and there, but I really have been blessed. That’s what logic and reason tell me. By any and all measures, I should be content and easily swayed into the Christmas spirit. But I was not.

A simple Christmas Eve service of music and stories has helped a lot. The children at our church are full of wonder and energy, so it really should not come as a surprise that their rendition of the holiday standards would help ease my winter angst. They sang with the joy of sharing something that they may have only recently learned — and helped all of us rediscover how the story of a poor drummer boy gave the finest gift he could captures a lot of what this season is really all about.

Part of our goals for 2010 include simplifying our household by selling/donating/tossing the things we do not need or do not use. Our three plus years in Nashville has given us plenty of time to accumulate a lot of extra things. Furniture from our teenage years. Clothes we never wear. Magazines and trinkets that nobody will care about in a few short years. Sentimental items that never really had much positive sentiment attached to them. We just do not need some of these things in our lives anymore.

Samantha and I left after the service tonight and did our Christmas Eve tradition: dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We talked politics and laughed about our fortune cookies. Our laughter and the car ride home is its own small blessing, and one that I overlook far too often. We may not be where we want to be yet in this world, but I know we are well on our way to getting there.

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas!