Christmas Eve Wishes

Happy Christmas Eve! Just wanted to send you good wishes from my warm, cozy, good-smellin’ house today. I’ve cooked sausage balls for the fam, made some creole rice for taking to the Christmas shindig tonight with Hubs’ side of the family, and whipped up chocolate dipped strawberries to take, too. All my presents are wrapped, and I am currently holding a pineapple mimosa. I would say life is good.

If you aren’t feeling it…the whole holiday thing…and I mean for no real reason (divorce, loss, hardships aside) except that you just do, my advice is this…fake smile. Take a deep breath, put your crap thoughts and bah humbug attitude in your pocket for just a little while, and go fake smile. You might actually find that it turns into a real smile. You might forget, momentarily, that your thoughts have been in the dumps. You might even realize it’s been all for naught.

Sometimes we get in a funk. And the weather doesn’t cooperate. It’s cloudy and 76 degrees in Mississippi today, and that DOES NOT put anyone in the Christmas spirit for sure. Sometimes we allow our happiness to depend on other people, too. If they aren’t coming, if they are coming, if she said something stupid, if he was thoughtless…we get all bajiggety about it and let it mess up our time. Why do we let people upset us? That’s on them. Maybe it’s not all going like you envisioned – the gifts, the food, the timing. It’s ok. Ride the wave.

Christmas is now. It’s here…on the calendar. But Christmas is more than a date. It’s warmth inside us, it’s giving, it’s humbly receiving, it’s showing up, it’s being content. It’s exactly what we MAKE IT for ourselves. So forget the humidity and forget about other people’s nonsense. Stop pouting and wishing and hoping and, for the sake of Sweet Baby Jesus, stop comparing. Fake smile a minute, and just maybe you’ll find yourself feeling a little more calm, a bit more peaceful, and slightly more joyous.

And hey, remember that none of this is about us anyway. It’s about a real-live, virgin woman giving birth to Jesus, the embodiment of God Himself, in the most humble conditions, to give us a means to true salvation, to give us a living example of a righteous human being, and to give us hope. (If you don’t get any of that, don’t understand it, or want to get it figured out, I am available anytime to hash it out with you.)

Anyway…all that said, I do hope you’re actually real smiling. If you’re not, I hope you’ll take my advice and go fake smile. Do your best. Make it look good. Your fake smile will be oddly contagious (and that’s better than your pouty face bringing everybody down). Hugs to you. You got this.

Merry Christmas!