As I sit down to write this, it is November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving 2020. My oldest child is finally released from a close-contact quarantine and eager to leave the house. My youngest is eager to make her famous chocolate cake for tomorrow’s community Thanksgiving meal. It will be a fun day of togetherness and delicious smells from the kitchen but it’s nothing like past Thanksgivings when extended family crowded into the kitchen, turkey smoked on the Big Green Egg, and we never considered wearing masks for the quick trip to the IGA to pick up last-minute ingredients.
And because it’s different this year, we can fall into the trap of thinking that this year shouldn’t count, that it will be inferior, that we need to just get through it and look forward to next year. Or we may overcompensate and try to fit in all the things, overloading our family schedules and overwhelming our kids in the name of making it the best holiday season ever! May I suggest an alternative?
What if we recognize this year, this upcoming holiday season, as an opportunity to be embraced. You’re likely familiar with the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, and time to plant and a time to uproot.” Maybe this is a year to examine past expectations and plant new traditions. Maybe this is a year to really examine what matters most in the holiday season and uproot those activities or expectations that no longer serve. I recently challenged the families in our “Don’t Miss It” facebook group to sit down with their kids and make a list of this year’s non-negotiable holiday activities. What
has to be done to make the most of this season and what can be eliminated? What foods will make this season special? What activities will allow you to be present in the memory-making? What traditions will retain the feeling from holidays past? And what can be let go?
I encourage you to do the same. What if we let this year be one not of lament but instead one of hope and intention? What if we’re able to look back on the holiday season 2020 as the one when we reexamined our priorities, renewed our commitment to being present with our kids, and saw God’s blessing in it all? God is good…all the time!
Susan Carey
Director of Family Ministry