Celebrating the Prince of Peace

I love Christmas! I love December! I am extra excited about the season this year.

Jody and I will have been married nine years on the 17th. This will be our 10th Christmas together. I remember our first Christmas. We had just returned from our honeymoon in Victoria, BC. It was my bright idea that we fly home to Florida on Christmas Eve, so we could spend our first Christmas together in our new home, just the two of us.

I seriously underestimated what a bad idea that was. I had never been away from my family on Christmas. I cried when my Dad dropped us off at the airport. I cried while we sat on the plane waiting to take off. My poor hubby didn't know what to do. He kept telling me that we didn't have to go home. We could get off the plane.

We went home and had a nice Christmas. But, we were so lonely for our family that we left shortly after our small Christmas dinner and drove all night to South Carolina, stopping half way there to get a bit of sleep at a rest stop (boy were we young and dumb!), to be with Jody's family for the rest of the holiday.

Since then, all of our Christmases have been spent with family. Yet, the season has always brough some sort of chaos.

Through the years we have have moved 3 times, renovated a home, bought a home, been unemployed, gone through major financial crisis, and prepared for a huge mission trip, all in the month of December. That is just craziness!

Last December we prayed that 2009 would be a year of peace. That the Prince of Peace would reign in our home and in our lives. 2009 has not been without its problems, but it has been the greatest year we have experienced together. We have been living in His Peace. In His Peace there is simplicity, order, and rest. In His peace there is no room for stress and chaos.

This year, more than any other, I am exited to celebrate the birth of Jesus, my Prince of Peace. We have cleared the calendar. We have cut out all the busyness. We have made time to celebrate together. To learn together. To worship together.