Checking In on Day 161

I decided to post this morning so that it wouldn't officially be one whole week since my last post!  Hi...my name is Karyn and I'm a huge blog slacker!! (Well, not as huge as I use to be, but I digress.)

Starting today, our two churches will be having nine Christmas services over the next three days...one tonight, three on Thursday, and five on Friday. Thousands will come, and we will CELEBRATE!  My favorite part is always the candles.

When we were a small church, we would always end our Christmas services with the candles.  The pastor would light his and then would pass the flame along. From one to another, the light would grow until the entire room was bathed in candlelight. We sang "Silent Night" together.  No instruments...just our voices singing "sleep in heavenly peace" in the warm glow.

As our church has grown larger, we've had to leave some things behind.  All-church potlucks become impossible at our size.  But the candles and "Silent Night" at Christmas have remained. They're a complete and total headache logistically.  They have to be gathered up after each service and set up for the next one. And with up to 1,600 candles lit at one service, we're always a little nervous that the fire alarm will go off, though it never has.  Then there's the final clean-up. It takes our facilities guys quite a bit of time after the holidays to get all the drips of wax out of the chairs.

And yet the Christmas candles remain, and I hope they always will.  And I will cry every time...thinking about the baby...thinking about the man...thinking about the light of the world.

So all in all, the next few days will be crazy, and I'm about as mentally exhausted as I can ever remember being.  The work on the new website continues with every spare moment, and I just pray it will all be ready by January 4th.

We'll be having the family over to our house on Christmas Eve, and I'm really looking forward to it!  Bill has to work his Fed Ex job, but we're hoping he'll be home by 8 or 9. No plans for Christmas Day...just me and my best friend relaxing and hanging out.  And then on Sunday we're going to meet Amy, one of my blogging friends, for brunch in Indiana.  Can't wait to meet Amy and Troy!

Oh, and I decided to weigh in today instead of tomorrow because of all the madness and it's official!!  3 more lbs. down!!  That means 70 lbs. less of me will start the new year (plus whatever else I lose in the next week or so!)

Even though I've been a total blogging slacker lately, I look forward to putting together a big, reflective, end-of-the-year post trying to sum up this experience.

I hope Christmas is everything you hope it will be this year. I pray we'll all enjoy our loved ones, and that we'll emerge from the other side of the holidays with no regrets about food eaten or missed opportunities for hugs or to say "I love you."

Good morning, Merry Christmas, and God bless...