Continuing the Tradition

When I decided to do a Christmas post last year, it became the third in a row, thus creating a line.  I'm trying to keep the line unbroken.

I've tried to make my Christmas posts uplifting and heartwarming.  I never expected to be writing my Christmas post less than a month after the death of my mother.

Mommy was sick for a long time, and suffered from Alzheimer's and ordinary dementia.  It was hard seeing her become less and less herself, but it was and is still hard now that she is gone.

I've been thinking about this post for a week, and have not really come up with anything.  So I am giving myself a pass, and my Facebook post will be a blog post from last December.

But for you, my blog readers, I'll be more honest.

I'm doing my best to celebrate this Christmas, because Mommy loved Christmas and that is what she would have wanted.

We have Christmas trees, and we drank eggnog.  We've watched countless Christmas movies.  We went to the play, Elf.  There are a few presents, and we're having a special dinner.

I'm forgiving myself for any lack this Christmas holds.

And there is the important message.  As I told my daughter last night, we can have Christmas any day.  We will pick a day in the future when we are together and call it Christmas.  We will eat special food, and play Scrabble, and laugh and remember.

Christmas, in the Catholic tradition, is about salvation.  It is about love, and ultimate sacrifice.  Christmas is about strangers offering comfort, gifts and escape from danger.  It is about a child born in poverty saving the world.

As much as I miss my mom, it is Christmas that gives me certainty that I will see her again.  It is because the Christ child was born that I believe I will be reunited with my mom and all my loved ones in Heaven.

At Mommy's funeral, one of the readings was from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, in part it read:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord...

And since we are all one in the Body of Christ, I'm still with my mother.  And without Christmas, without the birth of the Savior, everything I believe that comforts and sustains me is gone.

So while the human part of me is struggling, the faithful, spiritual part of me is so very glad it is Christmas.  And that God sent His only Son so that we could all look forward to eternal life.