It’s two days until Christmas!

*scurries around buying last-minute gifts*

How is it already almost the end of the year? It just feels . . . weird. I mean, weirder than normal.

For some reason, this December hasn’t felt very Christmas-y.

Most years, you can feel the Christmas in the air. Deserts are made every other day inside the house, and outside, Christmas lights and trees pepper the streets. Candy canes are handed out at school nearly every week. Usually, there’s at least a little bit of snow outside, and the air is really cold.

But this year . . . I don’t know. Something just feels off. Maybe it’s because of exams, maybe it’s because suddenly I have so many things to do, but either way, it doesn’t feel like a normal December. It’s hard for me to believe that Christmas is literally two days away.

Of course, it’s not that the feeling of Christmas is the important part. It’s everything else.

Christmas is a special time of the year, obviously. I’m not going to preach an entire sermon here - you can read or hear that almost anywhere - but it’s when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. We should be happy, joyful, and peaceful.

And instead, I just feel stressed and tired.

Should this time of year really feel this way?

I don’t think it should. I think that this time of year, Jesus wants us to set aside time to be with Him and prepare our hearts for Him. After all, this Advent marks the beginning of the new Church Year, and it’s a good idea to begin the year with a renewed effort to strengthen your relationship with God. And no, I’m not saying I’m perfect at this. I’m struggling with this, like everyone else. 

But how can we do that when there’s just so much to do?

I don’t have easy answers. But I will say this: we need to remember that there’s more to this life than just our physical lives. We need to make time in our spiritual lives as well, whether that means sacrificing some Netflix time, staying up five or ten minutes later, waking up a little earlier, or going to Mass more.

That’s what God is calling us to do this Christmas: make more of an effort to spend time with Him.

And I know it’s hard, like I said above. Lately, I’ve found that every spare moment is taken up with something I “have” to do. But when I take a step back and seriously look at what I’m doing, I see so many places where I can cut some Internet activity or book-reading and just spend time with Him. Let’s not even talk about my YouTube consumption lately.

Maybe that can be our gift to Jesus this Christmas season: just five minutes alone with Him, talking quietly. Doing nothing else, except spending time with Him. After all, it is his birthday.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

-Nicole