Note to self: Let it be fun!

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the season—St. Nicholas Day! It’s coins in shoes and stockings filled with fresh art supplies and a special breakfast and once-a-year books and real-life stories of generosity and love of God and neighbor and homemade costumes and choosing gifts for friends in Rwanda. It’s just as delightful as it sounds! It’s good in every way! I look forward to it every year!

AND…

I still had to write in all caps at the top of my to-do list and plans for St. Nicholas Day: LET IT BE FUN!

(I bet you a zillion dollars you can guess my Enneagram number based off that alone.)

Because as with many highly anticipated activities this time of year there’s also the stress of the preparations or a sick little one or someone who doesn’t want to eat the dinner or a bad attitude (sometimes from Mom!) or downgrading a big dinner with lots of friends to a quieter family dinner because of the timing of a child’s therapy appointment on the same day or last-minute pivots or unmet expectations. All of that was in play for us yesterday.

Even on the most obviously, easily fun days, light-heartedness and celebration take real discipline of my mind and heart. Celebration is a muscle I can either build purposefully or allow to atrophy, but when I choose to strengthen it, I will more easily be able to recognize goodness and more readily let my soul rise in its presence. Even in these comparatively small moments, we can acknowledge the stress, irritation, frustration (any maybe even, for some us—if we’ll allow ourselves to look directly at it and call it by its name—grief), and reach for celebration in their presence as a declaration that the Light of Christ will cast out every shadow at the last.

Will stress be part of the picture over the next few weeks, even in our most anticipated moments and dearest traditions? Oh, for sure. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. I can also let it be fun.