Thirteen Reasons I'm not stressed at Christmas

There seems to be a lot of stress in the air this time of year. Here's 13 reasons I'm not part of it.

1) I'm volunteering at the weekly (noon) Advent services at our church. This allows me a mid-week opportunity to reflect on what this season is about. If they were at night, I'd probably stay home.

2) Because of my career, I didn't do much of the hands-on work like serving lunch or helping in the kitchen. Although working in the kitchen is out of my comfort zone, it is a pleasure to mingle with the saints who can now take a bit of a rest. Wonderful music by our fabulous church organist, and great food and fellowship.

3) Then I slip on my robe and help with communion. Nothing says what it is all about like placing a piece of bread in the hand of a person who has struggled to come to the communion rail to be refreshed by the body and blood of our Lord.

4) My husband painted a watercolor of a wonderful scene with a man and child walking through the snow with a cut tree for our annual Christmas card. This relieves me of any pressure to go to a store or look through a catalog. He even sorts, stamps and puts the return address label on the envelop.

5) I write the letter that goes in the envelop with the card. This gives me an opportunity to sift through the year's events and decide what's worth keeping and what gets thrown out. I enjoy thinking about the family and many friends--some we haven't seen since the early 1960s, and this is the only time of year we're in touch. I keep a scrapbook of all the old photos and have been watching their children grow up, now their grandchildren.

6) Although I sighed when the computer crashed right as I was getting ready to run address labels, handwriting the envelopes wasn't that bad--did about 25-30 at a time and then would do something else.

7) In late November I decided to have a simple open house on the last Sunday afternoon in December. Close church friends, easy menu. Plenty of time to clean and prepare. Maybe the carpet will be cleaned in January, so I won't even look down at what gets tracked in (white carpet). If you keep the menu simple, you have more time to enjoy your guests.

8) I'm running recipes through my head and counting plates--decided not to use paper. Will polish the silver soon while listening to Christmas carols. While I do this I think about the joys of friendship and other Christmases, like when Daddy came home after the end of WWII (and Mom went all out and got us children a sled and a doll house, to be shared by four).

9) I spent a few minutes thinking about some awful Christmases, too--like 1963 and 1964 and 1986 and 1987. If you don't give the bad times their due, they might try to knock on the door and slip in to spoil the day. Now they've been examined and packed away.

10) We'll have the opportunity to spend the week-end before Christmas with my husband's family in Indianapolis. The calendar only cooperates on certain years, since they have this gathering the Saturday before Christmas. So unless Christmas is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, it usually interfers with our Columbus at-home activities. All we do in the way of preparation is buy and wrap 2 exchange gifts, bring a dish to pass and show up at a niece's home.

11) I bought a new Handel CD which I'm playing during the day, and I'm reading a new (to me) book by Elisabeth Elliot, "Keep a Quiet Heart," for morning devotions.

12) We've had just about the right number of invitations for the Christmas-New Year season. We had a dinner at friends' home 2 weeks ago, a few restaurant dates with other couples, followed by dessert at their homes, and an invite to a New Year's Eve gathering. Nothing frantic, but we don't feel left out, either.

13) We talked about a budget for Christmas in November and won't be hit with big bills in January. My husband's gift was ordered from a catalog and should be arriving any day. Of course, there's the new computer and tires for the van, but we can't call those Christmas related even if the bills show up in January.

So that's my stress-free Christmas. How's yours going?

Big thank you to Amanda for the pretty Christmas banner.