How do you feel about Christmas music? Does the constant blare of holiday tunes make you feel like the poor chap above? Bah Humbug.
I LOVE Christmas music! Yesterday marked the official beginning of listening to Christmas tunes for me. It has been playing most of the morning. I have a history of listening to holiday music outside of the properly defined time frame. Mark believes I start enjoying it way too early. My personal record is the first weekend in October. Mark and I were driving to Peoria, Illinois for a friend's wedding. As we were driving from Indianapolis to Peoria I opened the glove box to see what cassettes were available. Yes, this was before the time of Cd's. Hey, at least I didn't say we were listening to an 8-track! Back to the story - I looked through the glove box and all of the cassettes were Christmas music. I was in heaven! Initially Mark protested and refused to listen to Christmas tunes the first of October. Well, it was either fuzzy radio stations, Christmas music, silence, or talking. My tunes won out! Ha!
I have made it all the way to ALMOST mid-November this year. My little ones will be singing "Rudolph", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and "Silent Night" by the end of the week. Ana Lucia already knows "Jingle Bells".
In our family we are serious about celebrating birthdays. Actually, according to a dear friend of mine, we are serious about celebrating just about any special day. I enjoy that reputation. We've been known to stretch out a birthday celebration for weeks. We celebrate with my family in Indiana, we celebrate with Mark's family in Ohio, we celebrate with immediate family in our house, and sometimes we throw in a party with friends and neighbors.
Isn't Christmas about celebrating the most important birth in the history of mankind? Given our family's tradition of serious birthday celebrating I figure stretching out the joyous recognition of Christ's birth fits in perfectly around the Davis home.
I realize the holiday season is filled with parties on the calendar, shopping for gifts, decorating your home, and enjoying all sorts of Christmas-related hoopla. However, I challenge us all to CELEBRATE the birth of Jesus.
Find a live nativity scene and take the family. Read the book "Two from Galilee: The Story of Mary and Joseph" by Marjorie Holmes. If you are parents talk about Jesus with the kids. Rent the movie "The Nativity". Enjoy the true reason for the holiday season.
So, if the holidays make you want to scream or make this face like Gustavo...
Simply remember this...
Oh, and don't forget to listen to Christmas music!
I hope I am the first to wish you a blessed, joyous, and awesome holiday season!
