For Lease Navidad

Fuel up, Big Man.

We had a... testy dinner at the in-laws.  Not because of the in-laws, but because Thing One and Thing Two decided to recreate The Lord of the Flies, the Hatfields and the McCoys and the scene in The Blues Brothers where Jake and Elwood go into the fancy restaurant.  Plus, Thing One was hard pressed to think of anything he's grateful for.  For whatever reason, I know I was tired, that enraged me.  We're about to shower this little punk with gifts tomorrow (he knows about Santa) and he can't spare a word for us or his brother or his extended family or... Now I'm getting angry again.

Anyway, I went to church for evening service, and it was lovely.  And the sermon was that Christmas is a call to open your heart and love foolishly.  There are fewer loves more foolish than a parent's love for their child, but there are fewer relationships more complicated.

But that's my charge for the next week and the next year.  To love my ungrateful, cantankerous children as foolishly as God loves us.

Amen