So This is Christmas

The phrase"So this is Christmas" sounds somewhat sarcastic , negative , regretful but I do not mean it to sound that way. What I am feeling as December gets started and Christmas returns for another year is peace, joy and gratitude. I feel sorrow and nostalgia as well but that is a part of this beautiful time of the year. Last night I gathered with many to partake of a delicious turkey dinner offered freely by the folks at Kingston Baptist. That building and a lot of the faces I see there bring back so many memories of another time in my life. A time when I was raising four children and was an active part of that congregation. I sang in the choir ,taught Sunday school, helped with concerts. I was that young woman I saw herding kids and smiling last night. My kids were those excited, dressed up, nervous, adorable children standing on the platform singing their hearts out. Last night it was my grandson and as far as I'm concerned he was the star of the show. His red shirt and plaid tie ,his sparkling eyes and his huge smile radiated from the stage and into my heart. I was so blessed to be in that place. My granddaughter beamed with excitement after holding her new baby cousin. My older grandson kept his excitement under wraps as fourteen year old boys do. I sit here this morning with the sun streaming through my office window and reflect on every Christmas that has passed and on the gifts I will receive this Christmas.My warm comfortable home is decorated . The lights twinkle yet again and I await the blessings of Christmas. I add to lists of tasks to be completed, last minute shopping to do and events to attend. I hear Christmas music ( some ridiculously controversial) and some heart wrenching. The gifts I receive are not the wrapped gifts that will be placed under the tree but the treasured gifts of family and friends, of bittersweet memories, of loved ones missing and years gone by."So this is Christmas and what have we done, another year older a new one just begun."