Tracy's thoughts

"So, how was your Christmas?" That seems to be the question we are all answering the first two weeks of January. It is usually an innocent, conversation-starting question used to catch up with friends who you haven't seen much during December's craziness. So, why do I find myself torn on how best to answer that question honestly? Shouldn't it be a simple answer? Something like, "Fine. We saw a bunch of family, opened presents, ate too much, watched movies. You know..."

To some degree my response depends on who is asking. The acquaintance gets the "Fine, we had a good time" response. And the closer friend gets the more detailed answer. But, either way, this year I found myself wanting to say something bah-humbug like, "I wish we didn't have to shop for presents and fight the crowds. I wish we didn't have to worry about money. I wish all the expectations didn't exist. I wish we could have just holed up in our house with minimal decorations and presents and just been homebodies while watching movies in our pj's all day. And I wish we could have done that schedule for a week straight!"

Whoa.

Sometimes brutal honesty needs to be softened a bit. The reality is my response above is very selfish -- honest, but selfish. And furthermore, it does not represent what our family values. If I, as the leader of our family, dictated that our Christmas season would reflect what I described above, my kids (and wife, too, probably) would have strung me up by my toes with mistletoe!

You see, I learned this Christmas that I truly desire a simple, anxiety-free celebration of Jesus' birth. But I also learned that simple and anxiety-free are defined and experienced in different ways. In our western culture, there will always be a certain level of expectations and anxiety surrounding Christmas. We worked hard this year to keep things simple and, to a large degree, we got to experience it.

At the same time, I will always enjoy going to see family and watching our young kids enjoy the magic of Christmas. I do relish the idea of getting those I love and care for a special gift that communicates my feelings -- even if it means braving the crowds. Yes, there needs to be balance in how much effort we put into "experiencing" Christmas, but my bah-humbug attitude certainly doesn't help things.

So, my Christmas was "fine," how was yours?