Christmas 2011

I did not believe the Christmas forecasts when they started coming in. No, the forecast did not call for snow in south Texas. That only happens once every few lifetimes and we had that once a few years ago. The weather forecast actually called for what equals winter weather in south Texas – chilly with chances of rain. The chilly part is most certainly correct, but the end of the day will tell us whether the rain held true.

Work, in several forms, got in the way of the holiday cards the way I normally do them. Instead of 96, this year there were exactly zero that went through the mail. I did not even create a fancy electronic card. If the motto for my Christmas this year was on a t-shirt, it wouldn’t even make the t-shirt. I would be, “I attended Christmas 2011 and all I got was this lousy blog post.”

Behind the appearance of griping, the “lousy blog post” means I am busy enough and loving what I  am doing that I did not take the time to send out the many Christmas cards I normally do.  The blog posts also came in the way of Advent devotionals – one written for each day of the season – that is continuing into Christmas and in some form through the church year calendar on my other blog.

Doing the daily Bible study and actually meditating on the passages and then writing a reflection has done more to prepare me for Christmas this year than in a long time.

I am not at all giddy about Christmas; I am ready for the holiday to kick of a new season of work and opportunity.

Beyond preparing for the holiday in a different way, I made some major changes in my life this year that fundamentally shifted how I spend my time. The changes led to positive, measurable output in writing and reading and health, so I do not look back on any of the changes with regret. I write from time to time about technology – especially when it fails.

Some of my changes have involved changing the technology I have in my life – namely getting rid of cable television and actually spending more time working on my iPad than on one of my computers because, while possible, it is harder to multi-task on the tablet than on a computer or laptop. All that is for naught when I have the MacBook Pro, Dell Laptop, and iPad all going at the same time – which I sometimes still do - though I am working at only using one device at a time.

2011 truly has been a transformational year for me and it culminated in the preparations for Christmas.