Today is the last day of the year.  Tonight my kids will be out at friends houses and my husband and I will be at home, celebrating on our own-- which is fine with me as I don't like to be on the road late on New Year's Eve.  But we always stay up watching movies and football and so forth, and we usually spend some time reflecting together on the year that is passing away, and looking ahead to the year to come.  Our year this year has been busy and eventful-- our son, who was living in Chicago last year, went from planning to move even farther away-- to Los Angeles-- to moving home for awhile; our daughter started her junior year of high school at a brand new school; I attended the PC(USA) General Assembly for the first time, and Jeff took a new job that started in December.  Life around here may not be terribly exciting all the time, but we do have our moments!

Reflecting on the years past is important because it can help us find the meaning and the pattern and the rhythms in our lives.  Often when we're in the midst of living our lives there isn't time, or we're too close to the action, for us to be able to process what is going on around us.  It's only later that we can say, "ok, I see how this was important" or "maybe that was why this happened."  We can look back and see where we were close in understanding with our loved ones, and where we pulled away from them.  We can see where what we were doing was helping us achieve our goals and where we were merely spinning our wheels. We can see times in which we were moving toward God and times in which we seemed to be moving away from God.  We can see where our priorities lay at different times-- and where we need work in order to get those priorities in correct order.

May your reflections on the past year reveal the many blessings of life and may you see the year ahead as a bright new challenge to be met, with God's help and guidance.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve.  When I was a kid I remember loving Christmas eve almost more than Christmas day, because we always went to Christmas Eve service at church, and then had some of our neighbors in for a dinner of pizza, lasagne, and chili.  We never opened gifts on Christmas Eve, we always waited until Christmas morning. And we almost never had snow on Christmas day-- that maybe happened once or twice during my childhood that I can remember; but it was always cold, so it felt like Christmas.  Things have changed over the years, and my parents don't even get together with the neighbors (and in fact one of the neighbors died right before Thanksgiving this year) but it is still the cold air that makes it feel like Christmas to me (and I still don't open presents on Christmas eve!)

Our memories are often what inform our present day experiences, and can enhance our enjoyment of traditions in the present or can keep us stuck in the past.  Traditions are wonderful because they ground us and help us to honor the people who came before us; but if we cling too tightly to them it can keep us from appreciating the life that is before us, and honoring the people who are with us now.  Sometimes it's good to make new traditions; doing so can make our lives fresher and reflect more accurately the place our lives are in at the present time, and even help us to process the changes that are going on around us.  Making new traditions doesn't mean we no longer honor or care for or are loyal to the people with whom those traditions evolved, and it doesn't mean throwing out all previous practices and starting over from scratch (unless that's what you want to do). Sometimes it means adding something small, like lighting advent candles each week with your children at dinner; sometimes it means taking the mantle of host onto your shoulders and giving your parents a rest from hosting the gathering. And sometimes we are forced by marriage, job changes, or even death of family members, to change our traditions.  Change happens whether we want it to or not.

So remember these tips for dealing with change at during the holidays:

1. Even if you've chosen to make a change, there might be grief involved. Don't ignore it if that happens, but take some quiet moments to feel it and acknowledge it, and then take a deep breath and move forward.

2. Think ahead about events during the year that might make changing holiday traditions necessary.  Newlyweds or new parents might want to make their own traditions, so don't make them feel guilty if they don't fit themselves into the usual plans.  Death, illness, job losses or changes and so forth are other things that might cause family members to want to do something new this year-- be prepared and allow them space.

3.  If you add a new practice to your holiday plans, think about doing away with one as well.  It's easy to get overwhelmed with trying to do everything and please everyone-- and it really isn't possible anyway.  While you're at it, do away with any practices that don't hold any particular meaning for you-- following tradition out of habit isn't good or necessary.  You may be afraid of hurting your loved ones feelings, but perhaps they're feeling the same way you are and would welcome a change.

The title of my blog today is a line from a song that is out right now.  It may be the title of the song, I don't know; I've only heard it a few times, and I don't really even know what the song is about. But that one line gets stuck in my head on the regular, and is enough to send me off into deep thought on the regular! It is even my Facebook status today!

To me, this is  a pretty profound statement-- particularly from a good Calvinist pov.  What it says to me, as a good Calvinist, is that our humanness keeps us from dancing the kind of dance God has in mind for us.  Not that we're puppets on a string that God pulls one way or another, but that, as humans, we are trapped under the weight of sin that we all carry; and that our souls are meant to be light and free from the gravity of human existance that weighs us down.  When we dance with God we become free to be Adam and Eve, in the garden, once again-- free to be innocent and naive, free to believe the best of others, free to not expect hurt and pain to be a natural part of our experience, free to be who we are as children of God, without fear of hurting or disappointing God  or the ones we love.

The good news is that in Christ we can dance as God hopes we will dance. Jesus Christ, while on earth, gave us the example of what it looks like to dance.  Following him, following his teachings, can help us to leave behind some of our own humanness; as we do so we become as dancers, our spirits atwirl in the air, floating and laughing and weightless and full of light.

I am writing my entry at Paneral today.  Sometimes I like to get out of my office and into the world around me when I am writing or planning the worship and my sermon for the week.  I like to imagine the lives of the people sitting around me.   Perhaps it would be even better if I were somehow able to break through my own introverted ways and actually talk to some of them, but I'm hoping that will come someday!

It isn't quite close enough to Christmas yet for the holiday spirit to have really kicked in-- at least here.  Now, in the stores, Christmas is in full swing and has been for several weeks.  But here at Panera the holiday decorations are subtle-- deep red banners with pinecone images on them, which are largely there to advertise the seasonal sandwich and soup.  One side does say "give, recieve, rejoice"; but that's really the extent of the holiday message.  I have to admire Panera for not trying to be more than it is during the Christmas season! 

I have seen too many ads this year from desperate retailers trying to lure people into their stores by playing on their emotions or sentimentality. The one that annoys me the most is the one that suggests people should not just give a gift, but fulfill a dream.  Talk about pressure!  Is it no longer adequate to think it's the thought behind the gift that counts?  Must we now make ourselves responsible for fulfilling the dreams of everyone on our list?  I mean, face it: trying to fulfill someone's dreams through a Christmas gift is really setting yourself up for disappointment. 

Ok, so I must sound like the Christmas curmudgeon.  And I'm not at all against giving and receiving gifts.  I enjoy finding something for my loved ones that will make their faces light up with happiness and/ or surprise.  Last year I got my husband the perfect gift-- for him-- a travel electronic chess set.  It may be the best gift I've ever given him in 23 years of being married (or in the top 5, anyway.)  Did it fulfill his dreams?  Or help him make his dreams come true in any way?  Not really.  But it has given him some enjoyment and happiness over this past year--and that's enough for both of us. 

The lectionary scriptures this week are all about preparing the way. In our progression thru the season of advent, this is second step after the keeping awake of last week.  Isaiah 40:1-11 speaks of the redemption of Israel that is to come, which is fortold by a voice calling out in the wilderness "prepare the way of the Lord!"  The passage envisions a leveling and a straightening that will enable all to see the glory of the Lord.    Mark 1:1-8 begins with a paraphrase of a portion of the Isaiah text, linking that text to the figure of John the Baptizer.  In John's world, preparing the way involved undergoing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; his ministry was going ahead of the one who was to come, who would be more powerful and more worthy and who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.   2 Peter 3:8-15 provides the early church (and us!) with a picture of what sort of people we ought to become as we wait, how we might want to be when the Lord returns:  living lives of holiness and godliness; at peace, without spot or blemish. 

I think it trips us humans up a little bit when we start trying to imagine oursleves living lives of holiness and godliness, without spot or blemish.  At heart I think we sense that we aren't really capable of being spotless, of living holy and godly lives; so we begin to make comparisons of our sin over and against someone else's sin; we make rules to follow that will ensure our righteousness-- if only we are able to follow all of the rules, which is nigh on impossible.  We begin to see holiness and godliness as boring and too hard to achieve, so why try?  Or we fool ourselves into thinking that we alone (or along with a select few of our buddies) are capable of meeting standards, and so it's up to us to make sure everyone else is at least trying. And so, in our attempts to be sinless and spotless and blemish free, or in rebellion against too many rules that are just too difficult to follow, we end up sinning just as badly as if we never tried to be holy and godly at all.

The good news is that Christ will return, and as followers of Christ, we will be ready.  We have already, by virtue of believing in him, set ourselves apart-- which is what it really means to be holy.  We are godly because we believe in the God, Christ, and Spirit that exist in our lives.  If we are beleivers we have already recieved Christ and therefore the way has already been prepared for his return.  And if we know people who aren't believers, then it is up to us to share the stories of how Christ is in our lives, so that they may recieve the promises too. 

It's been a week since Thanksgiving, almost a week since our latest "Black Friday"-- that day of the year that kicks off the Christmas shopping season. It was truly a black day for the family of the man in New York who was trampled to death by shoppers forcing their way into a Wal-Mart, and for those injured in the same melee.  Over the years a greater and greater emphasis has been placed on Black Friday as the harbringer of good news or bad news for Christmas retail spending; and for the entire Christmas season as the savior of the retail sales total for the year.  This year, with the economy down and overall spending down retailers promised deep discounts on for shoppers who came early; and it was preseumably these deep discounts-- and perhaps fear that they would miss out on a "deal"-- that caused some shoppers to trample another human being, and some to step over his body as he lay there dying. 

Now, I'll be the first to admit, I love Christmas, and I love giving and getting Christmas presents; but when I read about situations such as this, it really puts me off of the whole deal.  To think that there is so much pressure on folks to buy expensive gifts for family and friends really flies in the face of even what Saint Nicholas was trying to achieve.  To think that retailers play on our desire to please our loved ones by buying them things-- in order to increase their bottom line, their stock price, and their stockholders dividends-- really brings out the cynic in me. 

I'm not going to call for a boycott of shopping and giving gifts this year.  But I would like to remind us all to be mindful of what we do, what we buy and what we spend this year.  Don't be pressured to spend money you don't have just to give someone a "thing"; find creative ways to give gifts that will be longer lasting and make for happier times.  Give loved ones the gift of your time, your love, your peace.  Forgive an old wound, or ask forgiveness from someone you've wronged.  Use the time you'd spend shopping to bake some cookies and then give them all away.  Hold a potluck dinner (or covered dish or whatever you call it in your area) in your neighborhood and build relationships with your neighbors.  Sit down with your parent or grandparent or teenager and ask them the meaning of life, and then really listen to what they have to say.  It is the season for love, and there are so many other ways to show love than through buying things for people.  Ways that are cost less in $$$ but will mean so much more than yo