Merry Christmas!

Christmas was much better than I expected, mainly due to my wife, who made it so.

She was very sneaky about giving me an MP3 player. I love it! I'm listening to Dave Matthews Band right now. I downloaded some Brian McLaren sermons for later. This might just get me walking again. Danelle also got me some much needed clothes. Very nice.

I bought Danelle season tickets to the Little Theatre on the Square. Not so much a surprise, since I just renewed last years tickets. I also got her a JC Penney gift card. She has lost some weight and is dying for new clothes, but I wouldn't want to pick them out. The newest Jan Karon Mitford book and a teacher desk calendar rounded out her loot from me.

The kids, again due to Danelle, all did pretty well. Danelle's self-sacrifice reminds me more of Christ than anything but Jesus himself in my life.

This post makes it sound like I think Christmas is about stuff. I know it isn't. What Christmas is about even more than stuff to most people is about expectations. Did my gifts and my family live up to my expectations? The answer is usually doubtful.

Jesus was about humbleness and graciousness and Christmas seems to demand the opposite in so many situations. But Danelle rescued me out of it with her humbleness and her graciousness. I may be the luckiest man in the world.