I checked up here and it's been since late September that I've written anything. Time flies, I guess.
It's Christmas Season now. Once again, I wasn't going to put up much of a tree. Last year it was a 2 foot high thing with a single piece of ribbon that read "Merry Christmas". Grandpunkin was horrified this year when I said I didn't think I'd put up anything, so I was shamed into getting a 6'6" fake tree and a few strings of lights. When those were up, he expressed disappointment that there were no ornaments on it. So, the box came out and we set to work, with him asking questions about each one, as my ornaments all have stories. Some were ones purchased the first year Himself and I were married, in 1986. Others were made by his daddy and uncles as they were growing up. Those are my favorites, the awkwardly painted balls and that one lego thing...whatever it is...that one of them made when he was 8 or 9. There's a copper foil paper origami crane, and now the one who made it is extremely skilled with origami and made a polyhedral ball type thing for this year. He promised a new something origami every year now.
Christmas is when I miss them. Himself and Capt. And when I have the cognitive dissonance of missing 2 men, without feeling a strong preference. Who do I miss more? I had Himself for 30 years., and he's been gone for 9. I had Capt for 5, and he's been gone 1. They were very different men. One was cautious and diligent. The other was adventurous and carefree. Both were extremely intelligent with mad building skills and mechanical abilities. But I miss them both.
They say you aren't married in Heaven, and I am thankful for that because there's the age-old (and pointless) question of who would I be married to? Neither, I'm told. It's Heaven, and perfect, and we're all too busy being in Heaven to deal with things like that.
Thanksgiving was 2-fold. Thursday was with Capt's family (they're all so lovely!), and Saturday was with mine and a couple of extras. Christmas will be on the 15th, because that's when we can all get together. The 2 living in Atlanta will be working on the 25th, and we have never needed to do it on The Day. It will also allow Grandpunkin to have the whole Family Experience with us, involving potato cannons and explosives and bonfires, and then have Christmas Day with his mother and her family. He gets 2 Christmases! Lucky kid!
I am reading an advent devotional, and it is emphasizing the point of Christmas, as a celebration of God's incarnation as a human being, with all the physical stuff like being born and such. He lived with us, as one of us, probably with mosquito bites itching, skinned knees as a kid, maybe likes and dislikes (did He ever have to endure brussels sprouts? Or was He one of those kids who appreciated everything? I mean....He created them, after all.) Living as one of us meant He actually truly understood what we go through as people. The frustrations (remember He got mad and flipped tables in the temple), the physical limitations of our bodies, fatigue, hunger, all that. He knows us, fully and completely, and can relate to our shortcomings. That hits me now and then, knowing there's a perfect God who reached down to live with us as one of us because He wanted to. I love that. It's comforting. This month we celebrate His desire to love us where we are, on Earth, as a limited creature, so He plopped himself into a food trough, with a mom and dad to look after him, and joined us on Earth. That's what Love is. That's why I put up lights and a silly tree full of memories, cook giant meals for my family and remember the 2 men who loved me most. It's how I do it. All through it I remember that God loves us enough to do join us here, where we're at, and walk with us through life and it's hardships, always pointing a way to go, to get to a place where, instead of Him joining us where we're at, we get to join Him where He's at.
