Christmas Travels Part 4, Christmas

Christmas Eve

Since moving to the midwest in 2001, I haven’t been to my childhood church very much.  At most it has been three weeks a year.  Since being married it is more like one or two every year and a half.  It has changed a lot since I was there.  In 2009 we attended the Christmas Eve worship.  It was the 1st time we had a kid with us in that church.

I was always part of the Christmas Eve service growing up.  Usually it would be a pageant or some form of music otherwise.  I didn’t suspect I would be that year.  As the children’s sermon started, the leader asked if any of the kids knew of a baby in the congregation.  Our oldest had just turned 1.  My niece volunteered him as a baby.  My wife and I were invited to bring him up as the beginning of what turned out to be an impromptu manger scene.  He had the role of Baby Jesus while my wife and I were Mary and Joseph.  One by one people were volunteered to take on a role in the scene.  Well, when it came to the three wise men, three young men (who had been in elementary school when I was there) didn’t hesitate to join the scene.

That was the last time I was part of the service for Christmas.  That is okay with me.  We had spent our day on Christmas Eve wrapping presents and finishing getting everything ready for Christmas Day.  Our traditional meal of Swedish Meatballs was prepared by my mom.  It never gets old.  Then, after everyone was dressed we were off to church.  Our family took up three pews.

Growing up Christmas was always very magical.  We would go to church, then spend the night looking at lights or visiting friends.  It always seemed the night stood still.  This year wasn’t much different.  It was the first Christmas I got to spend with our youngest (I was working on Christmas last year).  While it was a little different having three kids, it still felt magical.  We didn’t go around looking at lights this year, nor did we stop and visit any friends.  After church we went straight home and got kids ready for bed.

Christmas Day

As a kid it didn’t matter that I wasn’t a morning person.  I was up right away on Christmas day.  I would hurry to the tree, excited about what lie beneath it.  Once everyone was in the room and ready the presents would be distributed as fast as possible and the games would begin. There was the obligatory, “wait, that was meant for…”  and, “Where did that one end up at?”  as my parents discussed the gifts that didn’t appear under the tree.  After we opened those gifts we would have breakfast and open our stockings.  The day seemed to go on as more and more family would arrive.  We would spend time playing with our gifts before lunch, then opening more gifts in the evening.

As we are preparing to go to seminary, I am imagining what will happen with all of the gifts my kids are getting.  The house we will be living in is much smaller than our house now.  When I came down and saw what was under the tree I had to gulp.  Please, don’t catch me wrong.  I am grateful for how blessed our family is.  I knew there were boxes there that included clothing and other stuff that is not just toys and clutter, but stuff my kids would be use of.  Still, it looked like a lot of stuff to me.

We enjoyed opening the bounty of gifts that the family brought forward (admittedly, there were quite a few people to have gifts for, not just us or the kids, so it wasn’t as bad as my heartburn was telling me it was) and we finished opening them, we had breakfast and cleaned up to prepare for the rest of the family.  That started around 1:30.

The family that joined us was my brother’s family including his three kids, his wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law, as well as my sister and her dog.  My aunt was already there helping out. Seventeen people and one dog.  After a good dinner and some great conversation we relaxed the afternoon away before… opening more presents.

For me, the highlight of the gifts was my nephew’s drone.  He gave me a brief chance to fly it.  I got it to do a flip (don’t ask me how).  There were a lot of other great gifts, but I’ve always been into that kind of stuff.

At the end of the day, what made the day exactly what I am used it was having the family around.  It has changed over the years.  Some of the family that used to come can’t anymore for various reasons, yet some of the faces will always be the same.  Bringing the Scheirer family together will always have its quarks, but it wouldn’t be the same without it.

There is, perhaps, one more reason I’m slightly more sentimental this Christmas than others.  The past seven years I have been working dispatch.  I haven’t been able to spend many of those Christmas’ with my family.  I’ve had a few here and there, but I’ve worked more than I’ve had off.  I’m okay with that knowing that I am answering a lifeline to many who have situations on the holidays.  But now I am ready to go into the ministry.  I don’t know how many more Christmas’ I’ll be able to spend with my family like that.  I doubt that the family would all come from Pennsylvania to where I am  (12 vs 5, not gonna happen) and most pastors need to preach over the holidays.  With no idea of what lies ahead, I will relish every moment I have in the present.