Family

Winter holds within its grasp so many dear memories for me. The hopeful expectation of cancelled days from school, skating in snow boots with my brother and making snow forts with all of the neighborhood boys. Sometimes I still stand outside in the cold, close my eyes and take a deep breath. There I am. I'm five years old in Ohio--sweating in a snowsuit I can barely move in and having the time of my life.

I remember lying in the snow and looking up at the tree branches, staring at the snow balancing on them. I'd watch it sparkle in the sunlight and I'd drift off into my own little world. And of course, many of those memories involve the Christmas holiday and Christmas break from school. I don't know that it was Christmas day itself as much as all of the love and happy times surrounding the holiday. I remember traveling nine hours to my grandmother and grandfather's house in Kentucky every year. I remember the anxiousness I would feel when I knew were getting close. I remember hoping I'd fall asleep so that the trip would go just that much faster.

But what I remember most of all was all of the love. Coming from a family that didn't spend a lot of time all together, Christmas meant that we would all gather in my grandparents home and get to know each other all over again. Everyone seemed nicer. My parents were more loving and even my brother and I seemed to get along that much better at Christmastime. I remember how I used to wish that Christmas came more than once a year. If only we could do this more often.

I suppose that is where most of the memories of Christmas stem from for most people. It's a time of gathering with the family you may not see that often, sharing memories, and making new ones. It's what so many people look forward to every year...some for many months ahead of time, and some for the entire year.

But I can't help but think...why do families only gather for once or twice a year like this? Are we all so busy that we cannot make time for each other for no other reason than "because we love each other"? I often wonder why this is. Why so many families can make time for other things--scheduling appointments, working around other people's schedules, planning for parties of other sorts...but to do this with our very own family is such a task.

Many people may say that feel this way because I no longer celebrate Christmas. This is true; I do not celebrate Christmas. However, I do remember what it was like to celebrate the holidays. I also realize that people are busy and it's hard to make time out of our busy schedules to get together. I also think it's a real shame that so many of us don't try harder. If one of our family members offered us a free cruise for two weeks to spend that time with them, we would definitely find a way to make the time to be there. How sad it is that we cannot do this more often for that one Saturday on that one weekend without the prize at the end. Or perhaps the time with the ones we love IS our prize.

I am guilty for not making the time I should. I suppose it takes the one person to plan the get-together to have everyone over. I suppose no one wants to "go through the trouble" of the cleaning and cooking and preparing for everyone to be there. I try to do this as often as I can. Perhaps this is something I should work better at doing more often. Loving someone means spending time with them and getting to know them. We may know the people we love...but if we only see them once or twice a year, how well do we really know them?

It's something we all need to work on, I'm sure. It's something that I have been thinking a lot about lately, considering the adoption and the expansion of our immediate family. When you are just a family of two it's easy to consider the other. When you become a family of three or four, it takes more effort. But it's definitely an effort that is well rewarded. Truly our children learn how to love by watching how we love each other. Love is what Jesus stood for most of all and what the basis of his teaching was about--the greatest gift from Jehovah God to us was founded upon love...and it's the greatest gift that we can give to each other as well.