As I look back over the holidays, I realize there are many memories that are forever etched in my mind.  This Christmas has been different than any Christmas I have ever experienced.  I will never forget it. 

The holiday season has always been enjoyable for me even though it is extremely busy. My husband and I always look forward to Christmas.  This year, things were a little different.  Because of the flood after hurricane Matthew, some of our usual Christmas traditions were put off or postponed until next year.  We normally decorate during early November.  Our home and the academy are always decked out for Christmas.  We reopened at the academy three weeks before Christmas break this year. There were so many things that needed to be done.     A beautiful bulletin board about our Savior’s birth, one gorgeous Christmas tree, and some small decorations would have to suffice.  We had Christmas music playing in the halls, and the students and staff were all still excited about Christmas.  It just wasn’t quite the same.  Sometimes the comfort and joy is a little more difficult to find.

On the home front, things were different, too.  It was the second week in December, and our children were wondering if their father was sick.  It was so unlike him not to have his Christmas decorations up early.  On Thanksgiving Day, he is usually putting up the finishing touches outside while we are making dinner on the inside.  It just didn’t happen this year.  We had spent every minute working to repair the damage at the academy so we could get our students back into our building.

So what should we do about the house? Well, we debated about whether we should just put up a small tree in the den.  Our neighbors were even asking, “When are the Worthingtons putting up their tree?”  We always have a beautiful tree in our picture window.  We put lots of lights on it so it sparkles against the ornaments.  People usually slow down to see our tree.

We thought briefly about not decorating at all this year.  It was briefly, mind you.  For us to consider not decorating at Christmas, we must have been exhausted.  This was not like us at all.

Of course, we snapped out of it and realized that just as people were counting on us after Hurricane Matthew from the station and the academy, our family and friends were counting on us, too.  We needed to decorate our home for the holidays because of the joy it brings our neighbors, but most of all because of the joy it brings our family.  If the truth be told, decorating at Christmas brings my husband and me a lot of joy, too.

So we got busy and decorated as much as possible.  I got to work making candy and trying to work out as many of our family traditions as we could in the time we had.  No, we didn’t work them all in, but we did have a wonderful Christmas.

Thankfully, one thing we never forgot, Jesus Christ’s birthday was and is the most important part of Christmas.  I wonder if people watch us at Christmas to see how Christians are going to celebrate the season.  I wonder if we let them down at this time of year.  I hope not!  I wanted to be sure.  Do we keep Christ in Christmas?  Yes, I believe we did.

One way the academy kept Christ in Christmas was visiting the nursing home.  Many people asked, “Is the academy still going to bring gifts to the nursing home?”  Of course we are!  We can’t let those dear people down!  They look forward to our visit every year!  We had to scale it down a bit to make things happen faster, but the residents at the nursing home were still excited.  Their faces lit up as the children sang the Christmas carols about our Savior’s birth.  They grinned as we handed them gifts and told them Jesus loved them.  I could see a smile on our Savior’s face.

As you would expect, our church kept Christ in Christmas.  We sang Christmas carols all through the month of December.  We had wonderful sermons from our pulpit about our Savior, and we collected shoe boxes for the children overseas. Our members  remembered the ones in our church who are less fortunate with small gifts which made the season more joyous for them.  Our young people earned money for the needy and for overseas missions.  We also had a fellowship and people brought all kinds of goodies and a birthday cake for Jesus.  We had gifts around the tree for the children to show them love at Christmas.  To top it all off, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus as we do every year. I think our Savior was pleased.

In our home, I believe we kept Christ in Christmas.  The love our family has for each other cannot be explained except by Jesus.  The Lord has blessed us so much.  We gave each other a small token of our love.  We enjoyed a bowl of chili and different goodies from the table.  The light of the tree reminded us of the light that Jesus gives our home.  No matter what comes our way, He is ever present.

To be honest, it has been a tough year.  We have had a lot of challenges to face in our family and ministry.  The comforting thing is the Lord has seen us through it all. If we had no gifts or lights, if we had no candy or treats, and if we had no traditions, one thing stands on its own!  It would still be Christmas!  We have Jesus, and we have each other.  That is all that matters!

We can’t wait to see what the New Year brings!

Happy New Year!

Mrs. Worthington has five children and ten grandchildren.  She serves as Principal of Pathway Christian Academy in Goldsboro.