Apparently, it is "crunch time"! Just two weeks away from Christmas Day! It's been difficult for me to feel the Christmas holiday spirit. Here in New England, the weather has been unseasonable warm - in the 50s and 60s.....and to me Christmas needs to be cold and snowy!! I don't even like watching Christmas movies that are set in warm climates - I need to see people building snowmen, building warm fires to drink hot cocoa by, and wearing big warm sweaters with big snowflakes embroidered on them.The kids and I set up our artificial tree last night. Since I'm working full-time and they mostly work on the week-ends, they were so good to haul the tree and all of the decorations down from the attic and had the tree assembled, the branches 'fluffed' and lights on when I came home from work.
We love to reminisce about our ornaments: the hand-made ones, ones given by friends of long ago, and our personal favorites.
This is my favorite - a teeny, tiny recipe book of Hershey's beverages:
In our family, there is very little emphasis on gifts. We will spend Christmas Eve with my mother-in-law and my husband's siblings and Christmas dinner will be with my mom and most of my siblings on Christmas Day. The kids most look forward to opening their stocking to see what kind of fun and quirky things 'Santa' has found for them.It's difficult to try to not get caught up in the commercialism of this holiday. A lot of the neighbors have strung lights outside and people keep asking if I'm 'ready'. Well, yes, I am certainly ready to be with my family. My family that loves Jesus. My family that is held together by our united faith in Him.
We are blessed beyond measure and I hope that all will enjoy this time to be with family and friends, and to take time to reflect and remember those that are no longer with us (we lost my grandmother in September).
Merry Christmas!!
Good for Geoff and Lace for setting up the tree for you! I still have quite a bit to do but all my Easty Coast packages are leaving this state tomorrow so look for yours :) Hopefully the mail lady won't throw the box up the driveway this time :)
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Rob
Oh I missed this post for an entire week. I grinned to know that someone else doesn't like Christmas movies set in warmer climes. It's plenty cold enough now, though, right? ☺ John and I have prayed and prayed for good weather and we have certainly been blessed. The last stretch is being done today. I hope!
ReplyDeleteSounds as if your family has a good handle on Christmas. Our family uses Christmas to supply what is needed and what might otherwise be purchased at other times of the year. Not a lot of extravagances that's for sure.
Centering on Christ keeps us focused! Many blessings to you and yours.
(I had not known about the loss of your grandmother or had already forgotten. I am sorry because I know these losses change us in more ways than we can possibly even know.)