I have sometimes ruined Christmas.

And I did so mostly by having very high expectations ...

of myself,

of others,

and of "the moment."

I had a vision of how I wanted things to go,

a very unrealistic vision,

but a vision nonethless.

And that unrealism 

was what ruined

the real.

It is only when I decided

to give up

all that was unrealistic,

that I began

to accept,

welcome,

and learn to revel in

the real ...

The messy,

noisy,

complicated,

beautiful 

REAL.

As your families gather

to celebrate

the very REAL birth of

Jesus,

how can you lay aside the unreal,

so that you can accept,

enjoy 

and even love

the real?