I’ve had a bit of trouble catching on to the Christmas spirit
\nthis year. It has come and went and returned again. It didn’t
\nreally grab hold of me until just last week.<\/p>\n
Latching on to that spirit is normally a lot easier. The wife
\nstarts the Christmas tunes just after Halloween. Just
\nwatching the sugar plums dance around her head can right
\nthe most downtrodden soul.<\/p>\n
However, my soul isn’t the problem. Neither is the little
\nScrooge or Grinch that can hide in us all. It’s not like
\nI don’t have the time to pause and smell the milk and cookies.
\nIt’s that Christmas just hasn’t been my focus.
\nAfter all, for the wife and I, the big event of this year doesn’t
\nreally happen until next. December, a month normally
\nreserved for shopping frenzies and Christmas wishes, has
\nbeen filled with child planning and baby dreams.<\/p>\n
Decorating the inside of the house took us a while to finish.
\nThe twinkling lights that line the outside of the house didn’t
\nget put up until just last weekend. I’ve been dragging my
\nfeet through a combination of laziness and bad weather
\n(snow one week and rain the next didn’t exactly encourage
\nme to pull the ladder up to the side of the house).
\nAll eyes were ahead.<\/p>\n
All of a sudden Christmas has arrived. Even though I was a bit
\nlate, I jumped on the train just before it pulled into
\nthe station. Last weekend, we were able to spend some time
\nwith family. I got to visit with my sister, see my father,
\nand hug my mother (ok, I may have given good old dad a hug too).<\/p>\n
I’ll soon be preparing to head out to church for a better
\nreminder of that small child cooing in a manger, wrapped in
\nswaddling clothes; a King in the making who is truly a
\nreason to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow morning, I’ll wake up early, grab some coffee, and
\ntear into that stack of presents under the tree. As I do,
\nI won’t be able to resist thinking about just how different
\nthis will be next year.<\/p>\n
It’s funny. The very thing that has me looking past Christmas
\nis one of the best Christmas presents I can imagine, even
\nif I have to wait until January to open it.<\/p>\n
Oh, and Jesus, Happy Birthday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve had a bit of trouble catching on to the Christmas spirit this year. It has come and went and returned again. It didn’t really grab hold of me until just last week. Latching on to that spirit is normally a lot easier. The wife starts the Christmas tunes just after Halloween. Just watching the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}