Christmas Is So Close...

Christmas is so close...you can smell it. That's what the deejay said as I was drifting off to sleep. Apparently that sparked my brain because every time I woke up I had a thought in my head. So now let's see if I can get 'em on here. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas is how the song goes. What about the smell of Christmas? One of the first smells that entered our house on the day after Thanksgiving was the smell of the  Christmas tree. For all except one or two Christmases we've had a live Christmas tree. They smell so good. We love Douglas Firs. As the scent of turkey fades from the kitchen we begin to smell the sweets!! Yum. At home, we had White Chocolate Chip Cookies and Alicia's famous Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. Now at Mom and Dad's house, we have Batman Cake, Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, Reese's Bars, Cupcakes, Corn Flake Wreaths that stain your mouth green. At home it's snowing. That has it's own wintry scent. But what about the first Christmas? What did it smell like? If the manger was a cave, then it had a dank smell. After traveling all day by donkey, I'm sure Mary and Joseph had an unpleasant bodily smell. Course this was before deodorant so everyone stunk. LOL. Jesus was placed in a feeding trough. We assume it had hay in it. Hay has it's own smell. A freshly cut hayfield smells great. But what if the feeding trough was for the pigs. Well that probably wouldn't be since this was a Jewish town. But the thought of the feeding trough having slop in it produces a completely different idea. So you can keep your hay-filled manger. Then you have the animals. We assume there was a donkey, the one Mary and Joseph had, but we don't know if there were any other animals. Coulda been a cow or horse there, maybe a sheep. Because if the close quarters you would have to watch your step. Again, a smell all its own. That first Christmas was not as neat and clean as our pageants portray. The sweetest smell of Christmas, of any season, is the smell of love. That smell is hard to describe but impossible to miss.  The aroma of love for one another coupled with the love for our Savior is the most inviting, welcoming smell of all. So as Christmas draws closer I hope your home is filled with beautiful fragrance of the love of Christmas! A scent that is indescribable but unmistakably sweet!