Christmas eve has always been a little melancholy for me. While the kids have been so excited about Santa coming tonight and my wife getting all stressed out about getting everything under the tree and how much we’ve spent this year; my mood tends to get bluer as Christmas eve descends.
Tonight as we were sitting with my mom at our church service, and listening and singing those old Christmas carols, I was nearly moved to tears. I started thinking about time and how it keeps speeding up on me.
I start thinking of how many Christmas’ we’ll have with the kids in the house. How few Christmas’ are left when they get excited about Santa, and leaving milk and cookies and reindeer food out on the sidewalk. I think about how quickly they’ll be off on their own, spending Christmas with their own wife/husband and kids.
Each year I put together a video of everything that’s happened throughout the year. I videotape everything, tooth fairy visits, first days of school, birthday parties, dinners, halloween, school programs, vacations, and everything in between. These videos have captured our lives since 1994. Each Christmas eve we watch them in order and then premiere the new one.
Looking at the videos tonight, I realized that when I first started putting these things together, Lauren was just 3 years old. This year, she’s a senior in high school. Trey will be out of the house in 8 years, Delaney in 10. That isn’t an awful lot of Christmas’ left.
The kids are sound asleep now, probably dreaming of Nintendo games, roller skates and candy. I wonder if they’ll remember these Christmas’ as much as I will.
By the way, the Christmas segment I mentioned earlier played in dozens of churches this morning and tonight. I can’t post it to YouTube because of the copyright issue, so I’ll post the link below.
Merry Christmas everybody. Make it count.
wmctv.com wmc’s yearender