Possible things are easy to believe. - Madeline L'Engle

I was tempted to go back to the classroom today upon finding myself at work at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, printing out Christmas trivia questions and answers for tonight's Christmas Eve party. If I was still teaching, I would have a good two weeks off here. But then again, I don't ever have to bring work home, and I can leave and be done with things at 5 p.m. If I was still teaching, this would not be my reality. So there are trade-offs, I suppose. But still, working Christmas Eve is tough.

I love Christmas Eve. It's so full of possibility, of hope, of goodness. As Madeline L'Engle says, the glorious impossible.

And I love Christmas Eve services, especially late ones. There's something magic about candle-lighting, passing the flame from one person to the next and singing Joy to the World. There's also this profound sense of tradition, that not only are hundreds of thousands around the world gathering to celebrate, but it's this celebration that's gone on for generation upon generation. It's this beautiful picture of tradition that is life-giving and hope-full as opposed to dead and dormant.

It's this new beginning idea, of entering into a season of life - it is this I love about Christmas. That we've been waiting for something for so long, and it's now here, and we get to celebrate the arrival and the start of something grand.

As another childhood favorite says - "Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." -Alice in Wonderland...

Merry Christmas. May your celebrations include belief in impossibilities.