“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

“Christmas Eve will find me, where the love light gleams, I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams.” Bing Crosby

The days are racing. Usually, this time of year it would be my count down to Christmas. It would be putting the candles in the windows, and putting up the tree, picking gifts, baking cookies, wrapping presents, placing Santas I’ve collected on the table, stockings on the mantle and a big Santa in front of the fireplace, a manger set, lights everywhere, while carols play on the stereo, I am a Christmas junkie!  While I wrapped the presents I had carefully selected, I would watch A Christmas Carol, It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I wait all year for Christmas…and Doug runs around and says, “Bah Humbug” and worries that the real meaning of the season is easy to lose in the paper and the bows. We always seem to find perfect balance between us, each equally overboard in our own way.

This year there are lots of boxes, but no ribbons. This year it is sorting and taking lots of things that used to be important to the Habitat for Humanity  Restore…hoping they can be just the right thing for a different person, and packing the things we will keep to take to our new home.

Yesterday, at last, we got a “present,” our moving date, December 15th when the moving van will load up our boxes in Edenton, and then arrive at our new home to unpack on the 16th. The marathon of the following week will be to finish cleaning the Edenton house and set up what we can at Shady Stroll Lane.

You see, one week after we move, Doug will have surgery. He will spend Christmas Eve in ICU and Christmas in the hospital. The best present of all will be that we think  the surgery will let Doug truly enjoy his life in retirement.

So, Christmas will be different this year.

“It will arrive without ribbons. We won’t have any bows,
no wreaths, no lights, no presents to show.                                                                                   No star topped tree with a village below.                                                                          Christmas will come as quiet as snow.

Christmas will be different this year.

There’ll be no stockings to hang,                                                                                                      No big celebration, no great large whiz-bang.                                                                               No bells to jingle, no gong to clang,                                                                                               Just beds to set up, and curtains to hang,

Christmas will be different this year.

But if we had no bed, no place to stay,                                                                                               A stable our home, a manger with hay,                                                                                             A star overhead would still shine till the day,                                                                              And the song of the angels would still have its way.

As silent as snow, peace would drift through the door,                                                          Good will would still find us and show how at its core                                                   Christmas is not having wrapped gifts galore,                                                                                In fact, Christmas could never be bought in a store.

Hearts always grow larger this time of year,                                                                                   As we stand hand in hand with those we hold dear,                                                                   For the shepherds and angels draw ever so near,                                                                       And tenderly fill them full of good cheer.

Christmas never changes, not for you or for me.                                                             Christmas is family, not what’s under the tree,                                                               Christmas comes from sharing love, I know that you see,                                                      Love is the true Christmas gift and always will be.

It will be a different Christmas this year, but will still be same                                               The child always faithful who knows us by name.