As I ad­d­ress the many Christ­mas cards we send to lo­ved ones my hand cramps up and I need to take a break here and there. My hand isn’t used to ma­neu­ve­ring a pen for anyt­hing more than a quick note in my ca­len­dar. Most wri­ting is done by com­pu­ter or phone. Eve­ry ye­ar there is that temp­ta­ti­on to skip the cards and en­joy a break. But then I re­mem­ber how many gree­tings we re­cei­ve back in the mail and know it is al­wa­ys worth the ef­fort. In the past I tried to keep the list of ad­d­res­ses on the com­pu­ter to make things quic­ker. It was re­al­ly dif­fi­cult to keep the list up­da­ted as I would not think to add to it or chan­ge ad­d­res­ses throug­hout the ye­ar.

I have not reg­ret­ted my de­ci­si­on to go back to handw­ri­ting. As I am ad­d­res­sing each card I think about each per­son I am sen­ding these gree­tings to. Me­mo­ries come back. Some bring me­mo­ries of child­hood, some of a re­cent trip where we caught up on life, and some are new friends we have made on our jour­ney. These warm fee­lings bring joy and re­mind me of the bles­sings of this simp­le task I am ac­comp­lis­hing. Soon the cards from ot­hers be­gin to ar­ri­ve and inc­re­a­se each day. I am re­min­ded a se­cond time of these dear friends each time I sit down to en­joy all these cards.

Anot­her tra­di­ti­on we be­gan in re­cent ye­ars is brin­ging ti­dings of joy from door to door with Christ­mas ca­rols. This brings joy not on­ly to those who are re­cei­ving the ca­rols but for us who are sin­ging. We were on the re­cei­ving end when our baby was sick nine ye­ars ago and can not exp­lain the amount of love we felt flo­wing in­to our home. Now, along with our child­ren, we can bring that same joy in­to the home of anot­her fel­low tra­ve­ler. It is al­wa­ys good to re­mem­ber the el­der­ly, lo­ne­ly and suf­fe­ring du­ring this time of great ce­leb­ra­ti­on.

Christ­mas is quick­ly ap­p­ro­ac­hing and the tem­po­ral pre­pa­ra­ti­on is al­most fi­nis­hed. Our kids will be home soon for win­ter break and we can slow down to ce­leb­ra­te Christ’s birth. The most im­por­tant pre­pa­ra­ti­on is in our he­arts, where we want to make room for Him throug­hout the ye­ar. This se­a­son of Christ­mas is a time to ref­lect on our gre­a­test gift of faith and the many bles­sings we have re­cei­ved throug­hout the ye­ar. I pray we will keep this Christ­mas pe­a­ce in our he­arts each day of our li­ves and can con­ti­nue in faith un­til the end.