How quickly I can go from moderately pleased to mild panic over the kettle progress. A little snow (24" to be exact) shut the state of Virginia down for the weekend, taking from us our best Kettle day of the year...and a hoped for $13,000 is gone. Oh, I wanted to go out and ring. I convinced myself that it would be OK...but not one bell was rung on December 19th, 2009. Then...my favorite Sunday of the year was lost. The day that the children perform, the Sunday my sermon is limited to 10 minutes, and the gift giving to the children...all lost. What could be worse?
As I came to my senses on Saturday morning, I started to see an opportunity. A chance to play in the snow...the deep snow, and a chance to play with my children. We had enough milk, bread and toilet paper to get through the weekend, so suddenly I realized that I had nothing to fear and that, perhaps, I have been given a chance to slow down and enjoy my family in the midst of my busiest season. Now I see this past weekend as an opportunity given to me rather than an opportunity lost.
Incidentally, we are sitting $43,000 below my optimistic goal, though we are looking at a season end figure of about $160,000. We can make that work. Through it all, I will be able to look back at Christmas 2009 as a strong kettle program with the gift of a family weekend.
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