Christmas Is...

Amidst the city streetlights and stoplights, kids bunching and snow crunching, I stop for a moment to reflect on what Christmastime really means to me. 

I could do without all the shopping and the lights and the decorations. A naked Christmas in Kenya last year told me that. But there's something else that I couldn't do without; the one thing that Christmas really is...

Christmas is hours upon hours (nearly 60, in fact) in the car, traveling the N-S length of the continental U.S. with just a sister and carefully selected iPod playlist. Christmas is giggling uncontrollably while playing Hangman with sisters in the back seat. Christmas is watching two families become one. Christmas is walking into a room and getting too many hugs to count. Christmas is young bashful smiles that soon grow into warm grins and piggyback rides. Christmas is a cousin count of forty-nine, knowing there are fifty more who wished they could have been there. Christmas is "cousins" who aren't really cousins at all. Christmas is hikes in the woods and chilled noses and rosy cheeks. Christmas is new life. Christmas is love. Christmas is family. Family is Jesus. 

Every hug, every giggle, every grin; Jesus is there. He's part of my family.

Jesus is the reason for the season… and that's why all my family shows up, too.

Christmas is family.