‘Tis the day after Christmas, and more than a mouse is stirring … Sometimes, there’s more work after Christmas than the days before …cleaning up and returning the Christmas dishes to their resting place until next year. As years pass, I find myself coming up with a series of questions that begin with this one: What’s important? In the scheme of things, what makes your Christmas memorable?

I thought about Christmases past … raising children, shopping for just the right gifts, Christmas pageants, wrapping gifts, leaving out the cookies and milk for Santa, and there was a time in my life when I would have said all that was most important. Then children grow up, some move away, some grow distant, and a simple phone call on occasion, especially over the holidays, becomes most important.

For many of us, the Christmas Eve service can be as close to heaven as we can get on this special day. And then, I remember:

“Gramma, if Mary was going to have a baby, why did they go on a long trip?”

“Well, the king wanted to count all the people, and they had to go to the town where they were born. But when they arrived in Bethlehem, there was no room for them to stay in the inn.”

“What’s an ‘inn?”

“It’s like a hotel.”

“Ohhh… So where did they stay?”

“In a stable, with animals.”

“Yuck!”

“And when Jesus was born, angels came to a bunch of men called shepherds, who were watching their sheep, and the angels told them to go and see Jesus!”

That’s what it’s all about!