All I want......

....is Christmas in Dixie.

Let me preface this post with this, I completely and fully believe that Jesus Christ's birth is the only reason for Christmas. I was raised to have a focus on Jesus on during this season and I am hopefully passing that on to my children as well. The gifts, tinsel, food, and Santa often overshadow the real reason of this season to the point that people have started writing it "X-mas".

This Christmas season has been difficult. Though we know that we are here for a reason that our sovereign God has in His hands, we (I) miss home. We are far from home, in a land where it is colder than any cold we have ever felt and snowier than we have ever experienced. The sun doesn't shine that much and everything is dark and gray, covered with salt and slush. This makes for bleak and dreary days upon bleak and dreary days.

Which brings me back to Christmas in Dixie. I have been without my Alabama Christmas music all season. No, I am not a country fan, but I grew up listening to Alabama Christmas. To me, part of Christmas is "Thistlehair the Christmas Bear", "Candle in the Window", and most importantly "Christmas in Dixie". I vividly remember listening to this tape on my hot pink "Walkman" knock off all the time at Christmas. I remember it playing on the stereo at my parents house while we ate Christmas Eve dinner. I remember it playing in the car while we went to look at Christmas lights. Memories are tightly tied to this album. Memories that are much needed this holiday season to draw on and to hold tight to.

Why haven't I been listening to my "mostest" (as Maddie says) favorite Christmas music this year? My beloved tape died last year. I had been limiting the playing of it to conserve it as much as possible, but it played it's last chours last year. Then, I found the songs on I-Tunes and had them placed on my I-pod. These were on our laptop that died. Therefore I can't get them off. Sigh.

I have been singing the songs, but it just wasn't the same. I am sure that the group, Alabama, would shutter at the thought of me singing their songs. But I was trying. Trying to carry my childhood Christmas memories all the way here so they could become a part of my children's memories.

Today is a particularly cold day here. My car said "0" this morning. The wind chill is below 0. It is gray and overcast. I was cold and overcast. Today was one of those days I needed the sun to peak through, just for a minute. No such luck.

I had a few extra minutes, after making gingerbread houses with Maddie at school and my doctor's appointment, to stick my head into Wal-Mart. I needed mitten clips for the kids. While in Wal-Mart I decided to try looking for the Alabama Christmas CD. I know, wasn't I just hoping against all odds that Alabama Christmas would be here in the "Artic Circle"? Maybe I was just that desperate to have a part of "home" here.

I spent a few minutes look through their Christmas music selection and found everything from the Care Bears to Larry the Cable Guy (seriously Larry the Cable Guy has a Christmas CD, what is the world coming to?!?). I tried not to get my hopes up, but with every row of CDs that didn't' contain the Alabama CD my heart fell just a little more. I finally found a worker (a miracle in itself to find a worker in Wal-Mart) and was told that they didn't anyway of finding out what Christmas CDs they had. Weird. But the nice guy told me he would help me look through the hundreds of CDs. I made some joke about looking for a southern CD in Minnesota.

While joking on the outside, I really started to feel panicky on the inside. What if they didn't have it? I had looked (literally) everywhere else. I just needed a taste of home. While I was quelling the panic that had started to rise, the nice guy handed me a CD wondering if that was what I was looking for. There in my hands was the "classic" Alabama Christmas. The covered had changed, but the songs were still listed in the same order.

I am not usually an emotional person, but I teared up at the stupid Alabama CD. The nice guy asked me if I was okay. I am sure he was wondering if the tears were of happiness, or pain thinking about the southern Dixie twang I was about to hear. I assured him I was fine and left Wal-Mart with a huge smile on my face. This find even warranted a call home. Yes mom, I'm going to be okay....I can have my Christmas in Dixie way up here in the land of cold and snow....where no one sounds like me.

Can you guess what the kids and I sang along to all the way home? Can you guess the emphasis we put on the all to familiar southern language...you know making the words "star" and "for" rhyme? Any idea what Sam is "juking" to right now? Can you guess what is blaring through my house and what will continue to blare until we board that plane home?

You see this Christmas more than any other Christmas, I need a little Christmas in Dixie...I need a little home.