Actual Christmas Break

From my experience, the title of Christmas break needs a few more words. Something along the lines of "Christmas might Break you". The season is pretty insane: gifts, lines, money, food, baking, eating, wrapping, singing, parties, plans, driving, working extra hours, snowboarding, hugging, decorating, opening, inviting - all as much fun as a snowday. If only all that fun could be one day at a time, rather than crammed into three weeks of exhaustion - all piled on right after finals. Oh, the brutality.
But like it or not, that's the note on which we start the season. A season that's supposed to be full of tranquility, remembrance, love, sharing, sitting by the fire, contemplating the "reason for the season". And here we are: tried, burnt out, broke and annoyed. But this year, before my attempt to try to give and love and contemplate, God gave a little something to me: a vacation in South Carolina.