No way...I would HATE Santa Clause Day. The only thing that gets me through Christmas is looking forward to Christmas Eve Service. Its such a blessing to be there with my kids happy to be there that I cry through most of the service and totally lose it when they turn the lights down so only candlelight is lighting the sanctuary and sing Silent Night. Then I take the kids to the candles in the corner and my daugther lights one for her (almost) dearly departed bio-dad and my son lights one for his (very) dearly departed Gramma from California and we wish them a Merry Christmas. If it weren't that it's Jesus' birthday, I wouldn't give it much more energy than I do Halloween.
I wish I could get the kids to go to church with me every Sunday. I hate going alone, so I don't go at all. I was a Sunday School teacher for ten years before I got married, but I married my husband (whom I love dearly and would never trade for anyone - not even Matthew!), who had VERY bad experiences with the Catholic Church when he was a kid and there's no getting him to church ever. If I tell the kids they have to be dressed and ready for church every Sunday by 9am, they squawk and my husband gets behind them and tells me I shouldn't force church on them, given his horrible experiences with church himself when he was a kid. So, I just don't go. I have to bribe my family with ham and scalloped potatoes to get them to go to church as CEOs and tell them, "If ya don't go to church with me on Christmas or Easter, you get hot dogs...go with me and you get a fancy meal." As a result, they look forward to it now and the pastor lets my son ring the church bell after the service. The pastor told him that he can ring the bell every week if he came and he said, "Nah...I only like to ring the bell annually."
Although he didn't totally poo-poo the idea of goign with me every week. I'd also like to have my daughter confirmed. She should have been a year ago or so, but you know what happens is my mom comes back from Florida and starts harping on me to get her confirmed and then my husband gets all "Bwah, bwah, bwah...why does she have to force her religion on us?" and then my mom gets all filled with attitude as if not being confirmed will send us all in a handbasked in the wrong direction and she starts blaming not going to church as the reason my daughter has anxiety issues and the reason my son poked a kid in the nose that pushed him over on the playground. And then I'm like, "Mom....let me raise my family the way I want to..." Its always been like that with my mom and I...she pushes and pushes and the more she pushes, the more I want her to back off when if she'd just let me do what I know is right, I'll do it when I'm ready. GOSH!
Going to church every Sunday is something that would be very important to me and I may start going by myself this Sunday and see if anyone will go with me. I just hate going by myself.
On the other hand, the woman at the church we go to for CEO is super nice, works at the library and my daughter really likes her. I'm going to ask her what can be done about a little confirmation schedule for my daughter. I think it would be nice for her to have that under her belt and especially underway by the time my mom gets back from Florida to start her diatribe about it.
So, one would ask, "Why, if religion and going to church is so darn important to me, did I marry a guy that is totally against church and everything it stands for?" Well, once upon a time I was single...for a very, VERY, inhumanely long time. I hoped to find a nice guy in church and met about a half dozen church-going guys...one, in particular, was a Sunday School teacher like myself and I have known his entire family since I was about eleven. Sounds like a perfect match, right!? He ended up dating me for a month or so, got what he wanted and then the VERY NEXT DAY, left me for his old girlfriend, then a couple weeks later told me he broke up with his old girlfriend again and wondered if we could get back together
. Another I met at a singles group at my church. Within a month of dating him, he gave me a sob story of how he had to move out of his apartment and asked if he could stay with me for a couple of weeks until he could find a new place. Sap that I am, I said, "Sure...but only a few weeks." Two months later, I had to kick him and his PORN and weird sex toys OUT!!! He was a vacuum cleaner salesman, I should have known. Another guy that I DIDN'T date, was another Sunday School teacher with his wife in the next grade to mine and used to HIT on me all the time and tell me what a horrible wife his wife was and what a terrible house keeper she was and yada, yada, yada. She seemed very nice to me. I tried joining the church bowling league, but everyone was married and I had to join with my brother to make a couple.
How sad is that?
This isn't to say that all guys that go to church are bad, but I had horrible luck finding a church-going guy and decided a guy that is real with his feelings and emotions was a better bet. Not that a guy that goes to church isn't real with is feelings and emotions...but you know what I'm saying.
Anyhow, I decided that a church-going man wasn't the most important thing to me anymore once I got the gist that a lot of CREEPY guys go to church and a lot of them use thier 'religion' as a mask to trap and manipulate unsuspecting girls looking for a husband or a good boyfriend, like I was.
I'm sure I went off in a totally different direction than you were intending, Gary, but that's where it went and I'm sure you'll have a little something to say about it.
I'm hoping, though, that I can get my kids to go to church with me every week. And, my husband said this year, "You know how I feel about going to church and you know some year I'll go with you, but I just appreciate you know making me go, but someday you know I will..." So, I'm hopeful that some day he'll come with me on CEO at least if I just lay off and let him come on his own. In the meantime, he's so happy that I don't make him go that he gets the table set in my good china and finishes the cooking for me so we can sit down to eat when the kids and I get back. So, for now, its a win-win for us. I'm sure that God understands my husbands aversion to church and will somehow find a way to lure him back in a way that God only knows will work.
Long story short...the best Christmas present for me would be for my husband to go to church with me willingly and freely. Someday...of course, I'd spend the entire service bawling my eyes out, but it would be so worth it.
Anyhow...I'm rambling and it's time for lunch.
Merry day after Christmas to everyone!
PS...Sabres are playing Caps tonight!!
And the Purple Ghosts have won two games out of about six or so games...enough to have the glory of winning, but enough losses to keep them out of the playoffs
Seriously, if hockey season goes on past the end of next month, I'm gonna have to be hospitalized.