Silver bells, silver bells...

I'm thinking about Christmas. I know, it's not even St. Matthew's Day and I'm thinking about Christmas; am I nuts? Maybe. Nevertheless, Cyndi and I have already begun planning our annual 3rd Day of Christmas Party. Cyndi says we are inviting the whole Parish this year. Last year we had 15 and it was cramped. I don't know how we will squeeze everyone in. Nevertheless, we are going to try. Might have to be just cocktails and Chrstmas cookies. Won't be room for dinner. I don't know. I guess we'll have a better idea about what to do when the RSVPs come back.

Also, I just turned down an invitation to a Christmas party. It is going to happen during Advent. I tried to explain to the invitor that it would be too difficult for me to do an attitude jump from Advent to Christmas to Advent and then back to Christmas a few days later, that I really value the Church's penetintial seasons. I don't think he understood. I think that one of the worst things about the Protestant Reformation is the near total abandonment of the Church Calendar.

I remember that when I was a kid my dad had a sermon about dealing with dissapoinment. And in that sermon, one of the illustrations he gave of dissapointment was the day after Christmas. "The sadest day of the year", he would say," Is December 26. For weeks there has been an excitement, a growing sense of expectation, a feeling that something big was about to happen. But then the presents are opened, and the dinner is over, and the next day you just ask yourself 'is that it? is that all?'" He was right. For Protestants December 26 is an ugly dissapointment; it hasn't been sanctified.

Actually, even uglier than that, I have a memory of when I was 11 that is horrible. I opened all of my presents and was sad not that it was over but that I didn't get more. No happiness. No joy. Just lust for toys and then guilt for not being thankful. To this day whenever I am feeling like I deserve better than I have that memory comes rushing back to me like a freight train crossing Kansas.

But now, when I wake up on December 26 it is still Christmas. And when I sing "Good King Wenceslas" on December 27 I understand why it is a Christmas Carol. And even without presents, I am happy just to be in Church for several days and rember that God became man to save me. It is hard to want more when God has been given. And then we move right from Christmas to Theophany, and from Theophany to the Meeting of Jesus in the Temple, and then to Lent (depending on where all the heavenly bodies are), and then the Annunciation, and PASCHA and Pentecost and and and.... and it keeps on going! It never stops. Orthodoxy is the energizer bunny of religions, but better; none of our vestments are pink.

Oh, I came across this really interesting website. It kind of goes along with the practice Cyndi and I have established: Every one gets cookies, or something knit by Cyndi, or invited to the 3rd Day of Christmas (AKA Feast of St. Stephen) Party. Buy nothing, but still give.