Ready for Christmas--On the Inside

"Mom, why don't you make it your goal to not get frustrated?" my 10-year old daughter Laurel asked as we were performing the delicate operation of attaching the four metal feet to the stand for our artificial Christmas tree. The living room was strewn with our boxes of Christmas decorations, she'd already unpacked our nativity scene, our four pieces of a lighted Christmas village, and a few wreaths. Now we were ready to tackle the tree.

How did she know not getting frustrated was exactly my goal? I like Christmas, and I like decorating for Christmas--as long as everyone helps, no one argues, the tree stands straight on the first try, the strings of lights don't get tangled, every bulb lights, and the whole process takes no longer than an hour. When any of the previously mentioned things happen (or don't happen, whichever the case may be) I have been known to express my frustration. Stridently.

Maybe that's why both of my boys and my husband didn't even want to put up the tree this year. It wasn't worth risking the wrath of Mom.

A couple of years ago our family spent a horrible Sunday afternoon putting up outdoor lights and garland for some customers of ours. Horrible because of my attitude. When the blanket lights wouldn't work, when the thorny shrubs pricked my hands and arms, when I secured the garland to the entire porch rail and realized the male plug should have been on the other end to hook into the outdoor socket, I lost it.

When we were finally finished, the house was beautiful. Ready for Christmas. Then I looked at my heart. Ouch. Not ready. I apologized to my family for my Grinch-like attitude.

This Christmas I've tried to be more mentally and spiritually prepared. I'm happy to report I have had no blow-ups, and we have all of our decorations up. And, when Laurel suggested we read "The Crippled Lamb" beside the nativity scene, I sat down with her and watched as she placed the characters in the scene at the appropriate places in the story. Because baby Jesus is coming, and I don't want to miss him.