Between Times

It’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s—a liminal, borderline state at my house. The magic of Christmas is kind of over—the awe of the lights, the wonder of the pile of gifts. The scurrying to the store to buy one more gift. The wrapping of gifts in secret. The joy of the gathering of family as they arrive by plane or car to cheers of joy. The baking of cookies and treats that are only made once a year. The cousins running through the house and yard with screams of joy. The adults talking late into the night.

I love the Christmas season. The whole month or so, from Thanksgiving to Christmas day. I love getting out my bright green and red Christmas Santa Claus plates, putting garlands on the house, and decking all the halls with Christmas froo-froo. I love putting up the tree and thinking about the stories behind each ornament: the paper stars, the pipe-cleaner candy cane, the tatted, the cable car I bought in San Francisco. I love thinking about my family and friends and choosing gifts I think they might like. I love going to the Nutcracker and Christmas parties and children’s concerts. I love the ginger cookies and the sugar cookies and the fudge.

But my favorite part is that my grown-up children often come home for the holidays and our family home that is really too big for just the two of us fills up with all the children and their spouses and their children. Every bedroom is full.  I line up inflatable mattresses in the storage room, hang up some Christmas lights and other decorations, and it becomes the kid cave. (Don’t worry, there is a safe fire exit.) The cousins play together, the younger ones learning from the older ones and the older ones learning how to care for younger ones. The grown-ups do what our family does best: talk. We talk about ideas and experiences and feelings and memories.

But now it is the week between Christmas and the New Year. Now the presents have been opened and some have been returned. The toys are out of the boxes and spread all over the floor. The two-year-old is watching Frozen on seemingly endless loop as his parents try to cope with melt-downs caused by not sleeping in his own bed or having his own schedule.

Dozens of shoes and piles of coats are in the entry way. The kitchen window sill is lined with labeled red plastic cups.

The treats are still in abundance, but we are beginning to get sated. We complain about weight gain. The girls stream exercise videos on their phones and are working out in front of the Christmas tree. One daughter has started reading a diet book and regales us with her new insights on insulin and sugar.

We spend the days on long planned activities—and begin to feel the crunch of time together winding down. Will we have time to fit in ice skating? Is the snow too icy for skiing?

We are talking more and more of plans for the coming year. We plan vacation trips and house re-decorating and self-improvement projects. We are gradually turning our minds toward life as usual and maybe life as better.

The excess of the holiday season is beginning to slough off. We still love being together and being able to share fun and ideas and experiences. But we are also preparing for a new beginning on January 1^st. We begin to think almost longingly of returning to work and routine, of cleaning out closets, of eating healthy and exercising regularly.

And being together for the holidays makes us more ready, perhaps more able to be better next year. We have shared our ideas, what we have learned in the last year. We have shared love. We have taken care of each other’s children. We have asked for and given advice. We have reaffirmed the bonds of family that will take us through another year.

And maybe that is the purpose of holiday celebrations. Besides celebrating the joyous knowledge that Christ came to earth to teach us and to save us, we also get to celebrate God’s plan that put us into to families. In families, we learn from each other, we support each other, we fight with each other, we forgive each other. And because of families we become more and more what God would like us to be, at Christmas and all through the year.