Hot Chocolate and a sense of wonder

Photo by Alisa Anton

As I sit here typing, I am drinking a hot chocolate from the Lobby Coffee Bar.  I love hot chocolate.  I love it so much that last year I actually had to give it up during Lent just to see if I could.  (I could!)  All that chocolatey warmth and whipped cream topped yumminess, I just can't help drinking them, especially on a cold day like today.  The smell of snow is in the air and I am wrapped in my new plaid scarf.  Content for the moment.  A respite from the crazy December I've had.

In just two weeks, our family dealt with four colds, two ear infections and pink eye.  The last one was me. (Thank you so much middle school student where I taught that day!  What a nice Christmas gift.  You do remember that Rudolph had a red nose, not a red eye, right?....)  Hubby was away for work, which brought on the usual plague of illnesses and lack of sleep.

In the midst of this, I was shopping for gifts, attempting to make the perfect Christmas cards, printing out the address labels and sending out 80 cards to my closest friends and family.  I may have slept a couple of hours in there.

Life is crazy.  Especially in December.  No matter how much we try for it not to be or aim that we won't be so "commercialized" this year, it happens.  December is just gonna be that way.  The key to December is to take hot chocolate breaks.  Maybe literally.  (You know I will be!)  Or figuratively, in the sense that we need to take a few moments each day to sit and sense the wonder of the season.  December is all about those little moments.  The one where your daughter blurts out Jingle Bells in the middle of CVS and makes everyone smile.   The one when your children find the Elf on the Shelf climbing on the freezer with an ice cream scoop.  The one where you find yourself mesmerized once again by the holiness of the Holy Night.  The beauty of Christmas lights.  Baking cookies with friends.  Coming home to family.  What is your hot chocolate moment?

My favorite moment of wonder came this past Monday as I sat at the round table at my moms group.  We were all a bit weary.  But, we became captivated as one of our mommas held her one month old baby.  He smiled and then fell asleep so gently and quietly.  I was struck by the fact that Christ came to us like this.  So small.  So helpless.  So beautiful and new.  The infant Jesus.

This December, I wish you many "hot chocolate moments" of wonder.