Pre-Christmastime Confessions

I have a confession to make. I have listened to Christmas music already. (I'll give you time to gasp in shock and disappointment.) Now for an explanation...well...you see...I'm not sure I have one. But I happened to be in the library the other day and their shelf of Christmas CD's caught my eye...and I saw they had Steven Curtis Chapman's newest Christmas CD...and I love his song called "All I Really Want"...and the next thing I know I'm popping it into the CD player in my car.

That's where the real problem starts. I happily listen to my favourite songs and then when I'm finished I press the 'eject' button. Nothing happens. I try again. Same thing. Oh dear. Not good. To make a long story short, it has been about a week and I am still unable to get the CD out of my player. My dad (who knows just about everything there is to know about cars-- love you, Daddy!) took a look and thinks the whole player will need to be sent somewhere for them to fix. Oh joy. What do I tell the librarian?

I guess it serves me right for listening to Christmas music too early this year...

I have another confession. (Ah, this feels so good to get out in the open. Confession is good for the soul.) I have already watched a Christmas movie, too. This time I have a pretty good excuse. Well, I think so anyway. I had reserved it through our interlibrary loan system and it came in much earlier than I anticipated. What else could I do but watch it? I mean, come on, it would be due well before Thanksgiving even arrived. So one night I was alone in the house and I cozied up in my pajamas for a night with "The Christmas Card."

If you haven't seen this movie, do find it and watch it (during the real Christmastime, of course). It is a beautiful story of how a young woman's thoughtfulness in sending a card to a random soldier touched that soldier's life. And then when he returns from Afghanistan, he finds the woman who sent the card, meets her family, falls in love with them all, and there's a happy ending. I'm not good with short synopses, can you tell? Grant calls the movie a "cheesy Hallmark one," but hmmm, he also happens to have seen it twice. (I think he liked it.)

I have to admit that although the movie was great, the timing was not-so-great with Grant being in Iraq. I didn't realize how hard it would be. So many things in the movie reminded me of him and of the gap between us right now. But God is good and we know He has a plan for this year. We are trusting in Him to mold us and prune us in these difficult times. He is faithful. Knowing this and knowing Him make me smile through the tears.

And listening to my Christmas CD over and over and over again in the car makes me laugh.