For most of our working lives, we observed Mondays as our day off. It isn’t the only option for clergy. I know several ministers who observe Friday and Saturday as their weekend. That never worked for us. There was just too much that needed to be done to prepare for Sunday worship and Saturdays were too filled with necessary church business. When others have the day off, it is a great time for pastors to work alongside volunteers on special projects. Anyway, Mondays worked for us and we continue to observe them as our usual day off. Of course, there are things that come up that mean that we change our usual schedule, but most Mondays are fairly calm at the church and we are able to relax and have a bit of time for rest and recreation on Mondays.

Yesterday, in anticipation of a busy week, we took the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping. We don’t make too big of a deal about Christmas shopping and presents. We’re happy to celebrate Christmas in other ways, but we also enjoy giving gifts and grandchildren present a special opportunity for us to think together about what gifts might add joy to their lives. Shopping didn’t consume our whole day. We spent about two hours visiting four stores and were successful in finding gifts in each store. It helps to talk to other grandparents, especially when we are relatively new to town. Two of the four stores were places we have never before been and discovering a new to us sporting goods store and another new to us parent-teacher store were fun visits.

It was fairly cold outside yesterday. The high at our house was about 15 degrees. It was about 5 degrees warmer at the farm, which is a bit farther from the coast. There was a bit of light, fluffy snow falling, though the roads were clear and there were no problems with driving. It seemed very normal to us.

This morning, however, there is an article in the local newspaper that proclaims, “Snowfall is not stopping last-minute shoppers.” It is accompanied by a photograph of people walking down a city street. There is no snow in the picture. The people don’t seem to be in a rush. A few have paused for conversation. I had a couple of reactions to the news report. First of all, my typical, South Dakota reaction to the skiff of snow on the ground. There isn’t enough snow to stop anything, in my opinion. Do these people know how much snow fell in South Dakota last week? Would they even be able to function if such a storm came here? I do know some people who stayed home from church on Sunday because of the snowfall, even though there wasn’t enough snow that fell during church to require a snow brush on the car afterward.

So, no the snow wasn’t stopping us from doing a bit of shopping.

I do, however, take minor offense at the description “last minute.” Yesterday was December 19. In the language that used to be used - six shopping days until Christmas. It was hardly the last minute. We could have found a couple of hours to shop after work today. Wednesday wouldn’t be good for shopping for us because we have a Blue Christmas service at the church and I have a small group that will be meeting in addition to plenty of office work to complete. But we could shop on Thursday, or Friday. In fact we’ll probably make a grocery store run on one of those days to pick up some last minute items for our Christmas dinner.

I was feeling proud of our accomplishments at shopping. I’m pretty sure that we had a gift to pick up on Christmas Eve last year. Even with two services on Christmas Eve, there is enough time to make a quick trip to a store if necessary.

Monday was hardly “last minute” in my opinion.

Then again, I’m not in the retail trades. I am not watching daily sales with anxiety about the bottom line. I don’t compare the number of folks who are shopping from year to year.

I think the article reflected the relative boredom of reporters trying to come up with something before deadline. It makes sense that way. After all, I landed on the idea of Christmas shopping as a topic for today’s journal entry. A reporter might come up with the same topic during the week before Christmas.

I wonder if the busiest shopping days in the week before Christmas are affected by which day of the week Christmas occurs. I think a lot of people do their shopping on the weekends when they are off from work. Of course there are a lot of people who staff the shops who don’t have weekends off. Someone has to work in order for the shops to be open on Sunday. Maybe those people will appreciate the bonus day off with the holiday landing on Sunday. Some will also have Monday off because the holiday landed on a Sunday.

I like it when Christmas lands on a Sunday. We had a tradition of Christmas day worship at some of the churches we served. Since it wasn’t a tradition in Rapid City, where we served the longest call of our careers, we sort of missed it. When Christmas was on a Sunday, we went ahead with a Christmas day service and although it was lightly attended, we enjoyed it very much. When Christmas falls on a Monday, Christmas Eve is a very busy day with a service in the morning and a couple more in the evening. They are, however, joyful services and I look forward to them each year.

The pace of our lives now that we have smaller responsibilities in the church is very pleasant. We have enough time to go shopping from time to time. We have time for our home projects. We have time for each other. And, despite what I read in the newspaper, we are prepared for Christmas with days left to spare.

Merry, merry!