Merry Christmas

This time of year became so much more meaningful about 5 years ago when our son celebrated his very first Christmas.

Experiencing Christmas through the eyes of my son is one of the more rewarding experiences of life. It's hope, it's joy and it's laughter. It's expectation, it's excitement and it's exhaustion.

Every Christmas Eve as we attend our midnight service at church, Dyson inevitably falls asleep. Dionne is usually singing so I have the joy of holding Dyson as he sleeps through the carols and the Christmas story.

It is the most peaceful feeling that I experience all year, holding him, hearing the church congregation singing, "Silent Night, holy night, all is calm all is bright."

As the song is sung, I begin to cry with the realization that Christmas began with a birth of a little boy in Bethlehem so many years ago. And as we celebrate that birth of our Lord thousands of years later, Christmas is still about a child. My child, your child, children everywhere.

Christmas morning has become more than presents under a tree, it has become about peace and childlike faith.

The expression of a half-awake child turning the corner to see the presents that Santa has left under the Christmas tree makes stress disappear and makes hope spring eternal.

Smiles of a 5 year old make the troubled economy seem distant, gas prices irrelevant and elections non-existent. I'm sure for most of us, that is a good Christmas Present in and of itself.

So as you celebrate this Christmas season, I encourage you to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior and to experience this Christmas through the eyes of a child.

I'm going to be taking a few days off starting tomorrow and don't know how much I'll be posting so I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year.