What is the perfect Christmas?

Have you ever thought about the perfect Christmas.  Maybe you picture the family gathered around the fire sipping eggnog as the children open presents.  The picture perfect meal has already been consumed and has been cleaned up and put away.  Family from far away has travelled in and smiles and old stories are swirling around the room. 
Does this sound like what you are expecting?  We all dream of this picture perfect holiday, but is it realistic.  Lets look at the arrival of Christ  and see just how ideal the first Christmas really was.  As Jesus' family travelled the countryside to reach Bethlehem the rumors of the woman with child before she was married.  The husband was trying to move his family to be counted by the tax collector.  A lady nine months pregnant who has been riding a donkey is not quite the picture perfect arrival.  Home was a carved out piece of rock that was home to sheep, cattle, and other livestock.  What a cozy place for the a birth. As the couple tryed to get ready for this grand event I am sure Joseph was so proud that his new bride would be giving birth to there firstborn in a cave shared with livestock.  There where no family present only a few shepards, the trash collectors of biblical times, to share this joyous occasion with. 
So when you are travelling this Christmas remember the perfection of Chrits birth isn't in the atmoshpere or the decor.  The meal isn't what makes the day.  The imperfection of Christ's arrival magnifies the perfection of God and the life that Jesus lived.  We are not to focus on the surroundings or even the beauty of this season.  We are to focus soley on the fact that Jesus came to come into this imperfect world to live the perfect life and die on theh cruel Roman cross for us to have a chance at living in that perfect place at one with God. 
I pray that we all have a wonderful Christmas and that everything falls into place to make this a Martha Stewart Christmas.  When that doesn't happen I pray we understand that our sins cause this imperfect and fallen world to be less than we expect. That is why we have Christmas, the birth of the perfect sacrifice freely given to us on that first Christmas.