Friday, December 30, 2011

Merry (belated) Christmas everybody! Christmas is my favorite holiday, hands down. So I decided to make a list of my favorite things about Christmas. Ten or so.



Our Bumble.
( This list can change, don't put too much thought into the rankings. By the way, "being with my family" and "Jesus" I'm going to be excluded as of course those two should be the most important.)


10.Food.


Ahh, food. This is a good place to start.  Slow roasted ham with cinnamon and brown sugar, buttery mashed potatoes,apple pie with vanilla bean ice cream, Hawaiian sweet rolls, more pie, turkey, pudding, cookies, croissants, cinnamon rolls, PIE!, Need I say more?


My first slice of apple pie this season. Not the last.
9. Traditions/caroling
 I love all the little traditions, you know? We always number the presents and in between unwrapping a wave of them, our family does different activities to remember the story of Christ, or of Christmas in general. And it's fun too. Someone might get a charades card, having them act like pregnant Mary on her way to Bethlehem. Some one might get a card that has them Read the Christmas story, etc. Caroling is also kinda fun. I mean, what other time of the year are you allowed to demand figgy pudding from strangers?

8. colors/decorations/hats
Red and green, the first thing I think when I see those colors is Christmas. To be honest, I love that color scheme,(they are complementary colors after all). A normal house always looks better in Christmas decorations. Everything does! (well, almost. Some animals don't.) I guess I like how everything looks with a bit of green and red.



7. Lights
 Christmas is the only time of the year when strapping thousands of lights to your house is acceptable, for some weird reason. I don't know why we don't use lights like that throughout the year. I say why not use lights to decorate? I think using light to decorate your house is awesome. I suppose the small part of the year when we get these decorations makes them seem even better. (Careful what you wish for, huh) :)




6. Snow
 Do I even need to explain this one? Sledding, skiing, snowboarding, snowball fights, snow castles, igloos, there's so much you can do when it snows! And it's pretty cool to look at.





5. Candlelight services

 I didn't really know where to put this one, so I put it in the middle. Not too high, not low. I enjoy watching our choir and church praise team, (for lack of a better term), deliver amazing renditions of "Silent Night" and other carols by candle light. Also, I love my pastor's sermons every Christmas eve service. Yes, I'm biased, sorry.

4. Holiday specials/movies
gotta love 'em
"Miracle on 24th street", "Muppet family Christmas special", Phineas and Ferb Christmas special,etc, You gotta love you favorite shows/movies that get in the Christmas spirit. 'Nough said.


3. Music
 I love Christmas songs. Carols, modern versions, etc. All good. David Ian's Vintage Christmas, Reliant K's Let it Snow, Let it Reindeer, David Crowder Band's "Oh For Joy",Casting Crown's version of "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," and of course, the Phineas and Ferb Christmas album, are all what music I've been listening to lately. Not to mention Burl Ives' Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

2. Muppet Christmas Carol
Aaah, man do I love this movie. It is almost completely perfect in every single regard. It has fantastic music, wonderful characters, and communicates the classic Dickens tale clearly and effectively. Michael Caine, Christmas Carol, and Muppets, so good a combo. My favorite scene is at the end when Scrooge realizes that he's saved; the way how Caine portrays a newly regenerated life brings me great joy. "But the thing that made Scrooge happiest of all was that his life lay before him, and it could be changed."
Also, my favorite song would be tiny Tim's "Bless us all": I suggest watching at 9:37.

1. Gifts, (God)

Note: I didn't say presents here. Yes, getting gifts is good; I greatly enjoy it. But bringing joy to others has always pleased me significantly more than just gaining more stuff. Twice, perhaps more if I really think, has my family experienced Christmas almost without presents. This year and my eigth grade year Christmas. Both times it has been only because of God that we got anything. But God is always faithful, you know? This year, we've been kinda tight so we decided no presents, or significantly a reduced amount. But guess what, my dad got second bonus from the company he works for and he used that for our Christmas presents. He works for a Japanese company, very few companies gives out so many bonuses!

It's not about us, it's about Christ.

The other Christmas was when I was in 2007.  Life was... very difficult then.  My dad had no job, and it had been about a year since he lost it (all in all, it would be another seven or so months before he got another), and obviously all our money went to food and bills. Presents? Yeah right, maybe some legos. Turns out, various families at WB just randomly gave us money for presents. That Christmas was the biggest Christmas I ever had. Not just because of the presents, but of the love of our friends. I will never forget that.  The best part came as an anonymous present that some one left on our door step. It was covered in blue wrapping paper that had sparkling snowflakes embroidered on it, it also wrapped in a long, red ribbon that had gold trim and snowflakes upon it as well. One final thing to note, it had a typed letter, thanking my family for all our work in WB, and saying that we should open this present on Christmas day. It was a deluxe Wii package. That cost at least 300 bucks and that was at a time when Wiis were near impossible to find. Funny thing was, before my father lost his job, I personally had been saving up 200 dollars to buy one myself. Well, I and my father decided we should use that money for food. Thusly, The last thing I ever thought we would get that Christmas was a wii. It was like God planned it all along so that He could give us a beacon of hope in the midst of the storm. It was like He was saying "I know it's been terribly painful thus far, and it is only going to ge much worse. But, I am with you."
I love Christmas, because Jesus loves me/us, and I can't help celebrating His love!

There you go! Have a wonderful New year!  What's some of your favorite things about Christmas?