Aaaah, Boxing Day. The calm after the Christmas Day storm. An oasis of jigsaws, re-runs and indigestion.
Christmas Day is great.
But – it’s a little overwhelming too. It’s lovely to see family and it’s lovely to sit together round a meal and it’s lovely to open some presents. It’s just that on this one day, it’s ALL of everything in one go.
ALL the family – even the ones you usually only see at weddings.
ALL the food – breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert… a gigantic non-stop buffet complete with crackers and brandy butter
ALL the presents – a tsunami of stockings and chocolate oranges and soap-on-a-ropes
And noise. LOUD NOISES! Crackers and spitting fires and canned laughter and real laughter and arguing and teasing and ‘oh you shouldn’t have’ and ‘I couldn’t possibly…’ Sometimes you’re in a different house, with different people and different routines and – goodness me, I’m POOPED.
And in the midst of it all, it’s easy to forget what matters. And I don’t just mean the real meaning of Christmas (although that’s a part). I mean the everyday understanding of who I am and what life’s about and what makes sense. That I’m a Christian before I’m a daughter or a wife. That I have Christ before I have a kindle or a train set or anything else. That some things stay constant and still even in all the busyness and noise.