11
DENVER CATHOLIC | DECEMBER 2025 - JANUARY 2026
11
DENVER CATHOLIC | DECEMBER 2025 - JANUARY 2026
Christmas Joy
Is Found
IN THE MOMENT
I
expected last Christmas to be really hard.
It was the first time my husband, kids and
I didn't travel to see extended family. The
estrangement that caused these circumstances
was painful enough on its own, not to mention
the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), the traditions
lost and the grieving for what I'd imagined holidays
with kids, cousins and chaos would look like.
And yet, Christmas 2024 turned out to be the
most peaceful, joy-filled, fun and rejuvenating of
any I can remember.
CH R I S T M A S P R E S E N CE
It's the classic tale: God allows povert y
to bring forth riches. Stripped of many
of the things I thought were essential to
a "real " Christmas, all I really could focus
on were the ways we were connecting as a
family and how those things were laying a
foundation of faith and securit y for our 2- and
3-year-olds. What "should" constitute the
idyllic childhood holiday became quite beside
the point. ⊲
When plans fell apart, peace entered in,
and the season of joy became real for the first time.
