I was surprised 2 see so much festiveness.
None of it was about Jesus (unless u were in church) who is the center
of it all in my life, but I still appreciated hearing Christmas songs in
all the stores & seeing the trees.People love 2 say that Christmas is a commercial holiday, & they much prefer Thanksgiving, & that there’s a lot of pressure to give good gifts & such and such. Sure, much of what I hear from mass media is gifts & throwing a good party, & how to not overeat. Butttt, I LOVE Christmas! Annddd, in fact I love everything about the day after Thanksgiving all the way through 2 weeks after New Years (when I finally decide it’s time 2 take down my tree). It’s reading Sunday school lessons on the foretelling of the birth of Jesus & seeing poinsettias placed all around the church. It’s putting wood in the fireplace, sitting around the amber glow, poking at the logs, and talking about life until midnight when the fire finally burns down. It’s listening to Luther Vandross’ whole This is Christmas album.
It’s the youth Christmas play when some child always forgets their part & starts crying in front of congregation with everyone saying “That’s alright baby, take your time.”
It’s going shopping with the person you’re buying a gift for, disappearing down an aisle, trying to find a present, & sliding in a separate checkout line before they can peek into your basket.
It’s making a grocery list that my Mom is always hesitant to look at because I go hard in the kitchen.
It’s dancing with my baby cousin across the dining room floor as the tunes play while my paternal grandmother bobs her head & snaps her fingers from the sofa.
It’s pulling out the air mattresses & trying to find matching sheets & pillowcases so that altogether the 10 of us my can fit in my grandmother’s 3 bedroom house on a sprawling acre in rural Arkansas.
This Christmas was spent with my good friend Kristina who came over from Wuxi, China where she’s working. My 1st Christmas away from home, and though it was none of those things listed above, it was special because it made me appreciate even more what life is about: God’s love for us & His desire to share that love purely with one another. Jesus is love, and I’m thankful that Christmas 2014 offered a new opportunity to experience my favorite time of the year. From the ugly sweater party @ Alyssa’s place in Beijing the week before Christmas, to taking random selfies in plazas, to saying a Christmas prayer in a tranquil Catholic church with Kristina next to me, to the decision to have Christmas dinner at a swanky French restaurant (best decision of the day outside of our church visit… the food was EXQUISITE as all pricy French food should be), I have some unforgettable memories from Christmas 2014.
About the Author:
Kelicia Hollis is Detroit-born, Arkansas-raised writer,
speaker and educator. She completed her B.A. in Creative Writing from Columbia
University, her M.A. in Higher Education from the University of Michigan.
Hollis, a 2014-2015 Fulbright Scholar, is currently President and CEO of
Polyglot International Ventures Inc. in Little Rock, a foreign language
services firm. Learn more at www.polyglotnation.com,
and connect with her at www.keliciahollis.com.
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