Quiet Please

I want to experience a very quiet Christmas Eve this year.
Don't get me wrong, I love all the 'hoopla' of the Christmas Season, most especially the excited anticipation of the grandkids ~ it's all good, and it's all so exhilarating and stirring.


But I want a day spent that stirs me in a different way. I want quiet.  I'm not talking about having a quiet house, I want more of a sort of 'spiritual quiet' to take the place of the usual hustle and bustle.
I remember my Mom telling me when my kids were little that all too soon the house would become way too quiet, and that I'd miss all the noise and commotion that goes along with a big family.  Well, with two grandboys living under our roof, and two grandgirls that visit often, there is still a lot of wonderful noise and lots of fun commotion that goes on, and I get what my Mom was talking about, and I think Ray and I will feel a big void when we are surrounded by all that "quiet". And I know well that being surrounded by family and all the mayhem that comes along with them is really such a Blessing.


The quiet I am looking for is not the absence of noise, or the absence of people, it's just the absence of the flurry and the busy that usually occupies my mind and my heart at Christmas that I would like to distance myself from for at least this one Christmas Eve.


We usually spend Christmas Eve doing 'last minute' things, preparing food (and running out to the store for a forgotten item needed for a recipe), wrapping stray gifts meant for the grandkids stockings here and there, cleaning for company, then going to evening Mass and either visiting relatives or having extended family over for a late supper.  This year I plan on spending the day before Christmas Eve doing all the 'last minute' things.  I hope to just be spending a quiet Christmas Eve at home, and have an early dinner before evening Mass, and then home to get the grandkids ready for bed.  And then a very quiet evening, and I hope to remember to spend many moments dwelling on all our Blessings and most especially the Blessing of Jesus. (Instead of my usual quick, "Thank You, Lord" amid the pandemonium, I hope to spend some really prayerful and meaningful "Thank You, Lord" moments).


Then the lovely 'Christmas mess' can start early next morning again, with Jayden unwrapping his gifts under the tree, and hunting through his stocking, and helping his new baby brother unwrap gifts, and then family and friends will be joining us for a very casual lunch of sandwiches and salads.  I'm really looking forward to it! (And I'm hoping little Eóghan is feeling better by then, he's got a bad cough, and he's not eating well.  But there's no fever so I'm breathing a sigh of relief.)




I often think of that Amy Grant song at this time of year (I Need A Silent Night), especially this verse:

I need  a silent night, a holy night

To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise 

I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here 

To end this crazy day with a silent night


I hope you all will enjoy some quiet Christmas moments along with some not-so-quiet moments (too much quiet is not good either), and I hope you all have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas.
Love and Prayers,
Eileen