Tis the Season

The start of the holiday season was not quite what I had expected.  My oldest son wrecked his car, my youngest son broke up with his girlfriend on Thanksgiving, I got a terrible cold and sinus headache that would not end, 90% of the Christmas lights didn't work, we couldn't get the right deal to buy a car, and my oldest son told me he was so looking forward to Thanksgiving break but that it was a total disappointment to him.  Then my wife got sick.  Such is life.  And a little different than the start of the holiday season that I had planned in my mind.

But as I have learned, life goes on and one of my responsibilities as a husband and father is to help provide prospective to my family, to provide stability, and to keep moving forward.  After all, most of what we experienced this weekend were just setbacks.

And then Sunday rolled around, and I realized that what I was "preaching" to my family was something that I was really experiencing.  You see, despite these inconveniences and setbacks, Sunday was a day that added perspective and stability to my world.  Sunday was the first day of Advent, a day of reflection and expectation and tradition.  We also decorated the inside of the house for the Christmas season.  And while we don't have all of the high quality ornaments and decorations that some people do, we have decorations and ornaments that have meaning and a personal history for my family.  It was nice to finish late in the day and sit back to enjoy a few minutes of downtime and have that warm comfortable feeling that being with family and being surrounded by family history and tradition provides.

While it is nice to push forward and embrace change throughout our lives, it is also comforting to be a surrounded by memories of the past and expectations of the future, to slow down and reflect and appreciate the tradition and meaning of the holiday season.