As I was planning to write 30 different Christmas articles as we countdown to Christmas day, I wanted to touch on the true meaning of Christmas.  I have to admit that I have struggled coming up with a few ideas that truely convey how we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I don’t know if it has been hard because Christmas has always been about things other than Jesus for me, or if I just can’t seem to find an appropriate way to honor the day that we celebrate God’s invasion of our world.

I looked up Bible Studies and Advent studies and many other resources and they all seemed so cheesy to me.  Many of them talk about Love, Hope, and Peace.  At the same time I am reading articles about terrorists and homeless people.  I see other people who are hurting and the fact that Christmas is 25 days away changes nothing for any of those situations.  I would love to write an article about how peaceful the world seems at Christmas, but the fact remains that the holiday will pass some people by and they won’t even notice.  People will go hungry while I stuff my face with ham and turkey.  I will give and receive presents while others are looking for change just to have clothes on their back.  So, I am not going to write about sugar coated Christianity today.

The day that Jesus was born was the day that God put his foot down and invaded our world with a plan to save every human being once and for all.  A young woman gave birth to a son in a dirty stable in Bethlehem.  There were no comfy hospital beds, nurses, or doctors.  There was not epideral either.  The nativity that we setup at Christmas looks like everyone is peaceful and happy.  I am sure that Mary was happy to have her little boy, but I can bet you that she was exhausted and stressed over the responsibilities of being a new mother.  How would you handle knowing that you just gave birth to the Messiah?

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”   — Matthew 1:23

When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the day that God invaded our world to save us.  A plan to pay for our sins so that we will be able to live up to the potential and the purpose that God created each of us for.  God came to us.  We are trapped and have no way of saving ourselves.  God risked everything and gave up everything to save us.  He entered this world to save you and me wherever we are at right now.

Much of this was inspired by Joe Boyd’s teaching at the Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati on November 29, 2008.

At Christmas time I always look forward to the Coca-Cola Santas.  I am a big fan of Coca-Cola and there is something special about the Coke Santas to me.  I wanted to share some pictures of those Santas with you today and encourage you to drink a Coke today as you countdown to Christmas with me.

Christmas Movie Pick of the Week – The Polar Express

I know that these pictures are a few days behind, but I wanted to share with everyone the fun day we had riding the Polar Express.  Make sure you take a good look at K.C.’s face in our picture with the Polar Bear.  She did not like him at all.

I don’t know what your Christmas season calendar looks like, but mine gets filled up very quickly with many events between family, friends, and church.  It seems that we have something Christmas related going on every weekend starting the week after Halloween.  We have the typical family Christmas gatherings that begin around Christmas and stretch right into January.  Ephriam’s (Churchpunk in training #1) birthday is also in December, so that adds another event to the busy season.  There are typically a few other parties that we get invited to with friends from church and work that we try to work into our schedule.  We also try to go to parades, light displays, visits to Santa, and many other cool seasonal events that are numerous between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  On top of all of the events that fill up our December very quickly, there has to be time to prepare for these parties and gatherings.  And by preparation I mean shopping.

How do you get it all done in time for all of the events and still enjoy the holiday season?  How early do you start your Christmas shopping and preparation?  Officially, I start Christmas shopping just after Halloween.  I take my mom shopping for a whole day usually the first or second weekend in November.  Unofficially, I have my eyes open for gifts year round.  I like to save money, so I am not ashamed to buy Christmas gifts for people when I can find good deals.  So my advice is to start early.

I know that many people get tired of the commercialization side of Christmas appearing in stores earlier and earlier every year, but in reality, many people have started Christmas shopping long before Thanksgiving.  I start looking at my calendar early in October to figure out when the typical family gatherings will be, when to get our Christmas tree, and when to plan our shopping trips.  Faith (The BEAUTIFUL Mrs.) and I always take at least one day together, kid free, to do major shopping mostly for the kids, but also for anyone else on our shopping list.  We get a live Christmas tree so we cannot get that too early in the season or it will dry up before Christmas.  That is the day that we pull out all of the Christmas decorations and go Christmas makeover on our house.  We plan these days out in advance so that we are able to enjoy them.  Please take warning not to make your expectations too high because you can plan all you want, but don’t go Griswold when things don’t go as planned.

I hope that you are able to enjoy your holiday events this year.  Planning out the season and starting early will ease some of your Holiday stresses.  Leave your tips for Christmas preparation in the comments.

I am attempting to write a 30 day series on my blog counting down to Christmas.  The posts will have tips for your Holiday season and some other odds and ends sharing how I spend time preparing for my favorite holiday of the year.  Look for the first post tomorrow.

This is the new music video from FF5 and my favorite song from the new album Dance or Die.  Check it out.

Radiator