It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

"You're going to do what I say this weekend."

That's what my husband said to me on a Friday evening when he arrived home from work.  I laughed. Out loud.  He is not normally the bossy, demanding type, and I am rarely (if ever) the follow blindly type, so it was quite humorous (and uncharacteristic) for him to use those words.

The first thing he "made" me do was to sit with him and watch White Christmas, which is my favorite movie of all time.  I wish I could say that my favorite movie is intellectually stimulating or even thought-provoking, but it's not.  I'm a sentimental, Christmas-loving girl, and watching White Christmas is something I do every year at least once.  Sometimes twice.  Sometimes in July.  While he refuses to watch it other than at Christmas time, Dale does watch it with me every year.  Now THAT is a great guy.

The next day, I arrived home from my Saturday morning coffee group (I don't drink coffee, but they let me in the group anyway), and Dale and Calder (our youngest) were hanging the outdoor Christmas lights.  This was a huge deal to me.  We've struggled with getting lights up every year.  In fact, I think it's only happened 3 times since we moved to this house 9 years ago.  Sometimes it's the weather that keeps us from hanging lights.  Sometimes it's our travel plans.  Sometimes it's a lack of desire to crawl up on a ladder.  But I always want them up.  I would even leave them up all the time, but Dale says no (something about tackiness).  I guess he is kind of bossy after all.

That Sunday afternoon the tree went up--lights, ornaments, and all.  Since my dad passed away, we have used one of his caps as the top for our tree, and this year is no exception.  It's bittersweet to me.  Even though we didn't spend every Christmas with my parents, it's still odd for me to think about never having another Christmas with him. 

And that was my special "you will do what I say" Christmas weekend.  Since then, I have been looking at my tree, touching each ornament, remembering each story.  I've thought about next Christmas when our oldest will be in Afghanistan and wondered what I will be feeling then.  I've thought about how blessed we are to live in this country.  I've thought about what God did for us through His Son, how desperate I am to live a meaningful life, and that I want that for my children as well.  I've thought about what beauty there is in a family that, by the grace of God, sticks together.

Thank you, Dale, for my special weekend.  And thank you that on the weekend you were boss, you didn't even mention laundry.  I will love you forever.