This is the sixth Christmas I will have spent in this house. So many different memories and circumstances…always the same holiday. I can remember all of them.
The first was only a few months after we moved here and I was a freshman in high school. I remember going to a Christmas party with the youth group from church and coming home to watch It’s a Wonderful Life with my mom. I had some infatuation with a guy and was constantly wondering what he was doing for Christmas. I remember specifically getting Yellowcard’s CD and a TI-83 calculator that year. And there were also very cute Christmas toe socks as well. I remember wearing them to my Algebra 1-2 class when I got back to school.
The second was a bit more pleasant and a little less codependent…a little. I had yet another crush on yet another guy and we were becoming really good friends. For Christmas he wrote me a three-page letter/explanation as to why I shouldn’t date in high school (I was a sophomore). It was pretty endearing and I think I read it through the Christmas Eve church service, which embarrassed him because he was right behind me and probably felt a little awkward. He came over Christmas night as well and ate Santa’s Whiskers cookies with me. Never heard of them? They are fantastic and you have yet to fully live your life. Also, I got my first digital camera as a present. It was a piece of crap but I loved it dearly.
By the third Christmas, I was dating this guy and we went to his mom’s annual/famous Christmas Eve party. I must admit I was being a brat and didn’t want to meet people or do anything besides hang out on the couch. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t socially competent by my junior year in high school. But we eventually went outside by the fire and I met his funny uncle who later said I was a hippie because of how I was dressed. I took it as a compliment. Now I’m just embarrassed. Hah.
My Christmas as a senior involved a different guy who I dated, and we went to Zoolights (a light show that the Phoenix Zoo has ever y winter). I was excited to use my new camera, which I got as an early Christmas gift. He brought a blanket that we shared while we walked around the zoo and we bought hot chocolate. It was a classic Christmas date. Everything about the kid and our relationship was classic…that’s probably why people liked it so much. It was easy to understand, and people like to understand things. And that’s also probably why I wasn’t with him by next Christmas…
Last year, my aunt and uncle spent about two weeks with us over Christmas break. it was very fun and we did a lot of things as a family. I wasn’t working and I didn’t realize that I was getting a month off of school until I looked online a few days after Christmas and saw that I didn’t go back to class until January 14th. It was a great month off of all possible work…and I think I had a faint crush on yet another individual. Boys, always! But not this year…
This year, we celebrated Christmas yesterday morning, because my dad has to work for three days straight starting today. I loved getting things for people and seeing them excited about them. I bought my brother headphones just like everyone else on the planet apparently did, but I also got him Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which sealed the deal for a great gift. I got my sister Burt’s Bees stuff for pregnancy care and got Mike a battery charger for his Wii remotes. My dad got The Dark Knight on Blu-ray DVD, which he totally loved. I got my mom many things…including a very cute and soft sweater, a utensil caddy, and Simon Burch on DVD because she has been nonchalantly looking for it on DVD for a few years now. I got a lot of awesome stuff too! Mike was feeling bad all day and Emily got worried about if he would be able to do worship for their church’s 5:30 service. She ended up asking me and my mom to help sing with them so that Mike wouldn’t have to so much. So we got ready really quick and went over there. It was the first time the three of us have sung together and it was pretty fun. I ended up having to sing Breath of Heaven for my sister because her throat wasn’t up to it at that point, and that didn’t suck too badly either. People said I did a good job, but I know better.
Today, being Christmas day, Emily and Mike came over again and he was feeling better. We watched Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 and Mike was surprised at how much it wasn’t lame. They really are good movies! He and Emily went to his parents’ house about an hour ago and I am now in my messy room filled with dirty laundry, new presents and new Christmas toe socks. Life changes so drastically and consistently…I wonder why I haven’t gotten used to it yet. Just five years ago I was codependent and antsy. Now I’m about as emotionally independent as I could get and I am far from anxiety. Not necessarily in a happily-peaceful way, but in a way that hopefully helps God pave a clear road to where He wants me to have my adventure. I feel like I’m finally single…there finally isn’t anyone else in my life that I am (whether voluntarily or not) making decisions in light of, apart from Christ. I haven’t felt this way since about fifth grade. No joke. I’ve liked someone until I liked someone else, and so it would continue. God finally and painfully broke that cycle for me, because I couldn’t on my own. Part of me thinks that this is how I’m supposed to feel my entire life. Obviously I would have to make decisions in light of my husband were I to get married, but he won’t feed me the way I have fed on my previous boyfriends and crushes. There is a pastor that said once that both he and his wife are still single, and that totally makes sense to me.
My dog Buddy likes exploring the backyard, but he only does so when someone else is outside with him. If you were to just put him outside, he would sit at the door until he was let back inside. But if you were to go outside with him and just sit down somewhere, he may hang out with you for a few seconds but would soon be off doing his own thing. Once you want to go inside, he will run to the door with you even if he’s in the middle of something very interesting to his doggy mind. Plenty of times he has wanted to go outside and when I let the door open for him he turned around expectantly to let me know that he wanted me to go too. He doesn’t want to be outside unless someone is outside with him. He did so with me today, and since it was raining I stayed out a little longer than I usually do. It wasn’t the first time that I noticed his strange desire for company outside, but it was the first time that I realized that in my heart, I have done the same thing with others. I have said before that I recently realized that I wanted someone to witness my life but not share it with me, but I had never encountered such a real and living example of it as I did with mister Buddy today. I have wanted others to come outside with me. I wanted them to be in my life. A few obliged. We spent some great and loving time together, but eventually I went off to do my own thing, wanting them to stay outside but not necessarily to interfere with what I was doing. Once they tried to contribute too much or change things too drastically, I asked them to go back inside. But I went back inside too, looking for someone else to come outside with me. I didn’t want to do “my own thing” or basically live my life without someone watching me…without someone caring. I think this is the cycle that I am breaking away from. I am realizing that I always have someone witnessing my life, and He embellishes it like no one else could. He sure does change things drastically but my trust for Him only seeps deeper in the soil of my living love for Him. Maybe someday I’ll share such a precious life with someone else who knows how to love it and add to it the way He seems fit, but for now I guess He’s the only one up for the job or capable of it.
Basically, it’s been a great Christmas. I hope you can say the same, my friend