Monday, December 28, 2009

The 12 Days of Christmas #10



Though difficult to imagine, the past few days have been hectic ones. After blizzard warnings and endless days of sub-zero temperatures and gift giving and gatherings with the in-laws and personal hopes of posting 12 days in a row being shattered, I'm glad Christmas is over. But wait! Is it?
I managed to get myself stuck on Christmas Eve morning in a deep and hard drift outside of our home. I walked back to the house, head hanging, waiting for the ridicule I was certain to face.

Danish Cowboy: You weren't driving fast enough.<

Me: I didn't want to hit the fenceposts.

DC: You always line up straight on and punch it. I watched the whole thing. You weren't going fast enough.

Me: Whatever. This is what happens when you marry a city girl. Go dig me out.

So he goes and rescues me in about 2 seconds. I stayed with the kids in the house until he had the pick-up out and then ran outside and we met halfway between the scene of the stickiness and the house. The kids were alone for, at best (or worst), three minutes.

I drove down the road and discovered that the brakes were not working and called Danish Cowboy. He failed to care.

Danish Cowboy: Grrrr...The brakes will be like that all day. Deal with it. Grrr...

Me: What's your problem on this beautiful winter day?

DC: The kids got in to the finger paint after you left. It is all over the wall, window, the trim, floor and them.

Me: Never mind. I don't need brakes. Click. (hysterical laughter all day long)As I said before, I am pleased that the Christmas season is over. However, when listening to A Prairie Home Companion on December 26, Mr. Keillor informed me that the 12 Days of Christmas had, are you ready for this? Only just begun. What?!?!?Here I was, duped by mainstream commercialism and my sorely lacking knowledge of religious history, into thinking that the 12 Days of Christmas happened before Christmas. My friends, they do not happen before. They happen after. The 12 Days celebrate the arrival of the birth of Christ and ultimately the arrival of the magi (who may or may not have been kings and may or may not have been women).The 12 Days culminate in the Epiphany of Christ, wherein he is blessed with gifts and discovered as the son of God. My version of this story is short, lacking in details, and begs for you to read more on it and not laugh at me because I did not know this. We can all celebrate the kindness and wonder that come inherently with the cold holiday season. We can all practice the love thy neighbor doctrine. How can you not when there is such beauty surrounding us?And that is one lesson of the faithful that did not escape my grasp.

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