Last Saturday we put up our Christmas decorations! Now let me be clear, we decorated the fireplace mantel, hung up a wreath on the front door, put candles in the windows, and put out some Christmas nick-nacks. Traditionally we wait to put up our Christmas tree on Christmas eve, so we still have that left to do. However, it does still look a lot like Christmas. I love this time of year, and the kids have a special light in their eyes with any Christmas activity we do. It’s so special to see them love Christmas. It is a busy time of year preparing for everything. It is so important to keep perspective and not become overwhelmed by all the to dos. I had to take a step back and remember the joy of Christmas is in the preparation, and the time we spend with our loved ones. I always want Christmas to be a time of joy, laughter, peace, giving and gratitude. A time of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus!

One of my favorite traditions has become our advent wreath. We light the advent wreath before every meal, and there is something peaceful about having the candles lit while we eat.

Something very interesting happened after we finished putting out our Christmas decorations. A little bird landed on our front door wreath. I was sitting on the sofa admiring our work when it came, and I thought how curious! It sat there long enough for me to get this picture! It is almost as if the bird were approving our decorations. I like to think of this little bird as a gift. Perhaps it was an angel peeking down from heaven.

This weekend we took the kids to see Christmas lights! This is one of my favorite things to do. It stems back to my childhood when Dad and Mom would take us on a drive to see Christmas lights. Some neighbor hoods we drove through would decorate exquisitely, and we looked forward to seeing it every year. Not far from where we live there is a place called the Lights of the Delta! It is on a former air force base, and you drive through and see all the light displays. It is amazing!! Andrew first took me to see it when we were dating!! I was thrilled to get to visit again all these years later with our three kids!

I tried to take some pictures, but with the lighting and the slight drizzle of rain, the pictures don’t do it justice! The kids were in awe! There were “oohs” and “aahs”, thrilled shrieks and “look at that” ‘s ringing through the car. It was definitely a highlight of our season!

Today we decorated ginger bread houses! I cheated and bought the ginger bread house kits. I have made ginger bread before, but I honestly don’t like ginger bread, and it seemed more work than it would be worth. Besides, the kids really just want to decorate and eat the candy anyway! We had a great time and it took us a good chunk of the morning to do it. I helped David and Emma put their houses together, but they did all the piping and decorating. I decorated Samuel’s gingerbread house, but Samuel ate most of his gummies before we could decorate with them! 🙂 This was our first time to build and decorate ginger bread houses. I think it might become a new tradition!

Love,

PK