Here We Goooooooo!

   Happy December :)

  I don't know how your weather is today but here it is TYPICAL. The rain is pouring down it is as grey as could be, it is damp and cold and it wearies your bones! My children are fighting and bored and yet going outside is so cold and they get soaked. I was trying to find extra boots at thrift stores today for my three year old as his are wet inside from this morning. Now my seven year old is telling me my three year old has painted her dresser and carpet. I hear my ten year old yelling at my twelve year old who is trying to clean our house for her birthday party. Welcome December!!!!!!

  The continent I live on does a lot during December. People put up copious amounts of Christmas lights and decorations on the front of their houses. People spend decent amounts of money on a Christmas tree which is cut down and then they put in their living rooms and decorate them. People hang wreathes on their doors and decorate with pine boughs. People spend thousands of dollars (or at least hundreds) on Christmas gifts. People who NEVER send mail may write and send Christmas cards. People have Christmas parties and dress up and do Christmas dinners with family and with friends. It is just sort of a big month here. There have been Christmas décor in stores since October or earlier. People have so many traditions around this time of year....movies they always watch, places they go together, cookies they bake...the list goes on. There is advent and advent calendars. There are plays to see and Christmas pageants to attend or be in.

  Let me share some of the things we do as a family and I do myself.
First of all I buy a massive box of chocolates (Ferrero Roche) and I eat them whenever I get stressed...which is often. By the end of Christmas I have eaten A LOT of those chocolates. They sort of see me through.

  Second I figure out my extended family Christmas breakfast and if we are going to do a dinner. We also do a family gift draw each year so that just one person has to buy a gift for another person. This is with my side of the family. My husband's family does not often do much around this time of year together.

I often send out copious amounts of Christmas cards to friends and family all over the world. We sometimes make a birthday cake for Jesus.

  Things we do as well are getting a Christmas tree from the same place every year. We go on a little Christmas train locally. We drive around one night and just enjoy Christmas lights. On Christmas eve we open gifts from our immediate family gift exchange. We also do Christmas stockings and open them up first thing Christmas morning before we head to my parents for breakfast.

  How was your Christmas growing up? I feel like our Christmas was pretty typical. I feel like my parents were always stressed out to some degree. We never had copious amounts of money and they wanted everything to be right. We would get a tree and decorate it, we would make gingerbread men and decorate them, they would buy us presents. Some years however we just had no money and the Salvation Army would bring us hampers or our church would. We loved it (as children). I assume that was very hard on my parents especially my dad. I know our health was also usually quite bad around Christmas and I remember being sick a lot. I remember my dad often prepared a Christmas dinner for his extended family. I remember my aunties faithfully bought us special gifts as did our grandparents. I know that at Christmas I saw a lot of effort being put in for us as children to feel loved and thought of. As an adult now I empathize with the financial strain and effort that Christmas brings. I also realize that children do love gifts but they also love family time, traditions and fun experiences.

  When I got married I really wanted to have all these special traditions around Christmas. I wanted Christmas to be this perfect warm fuzzy family time. As the children came and times were hard I also realized how much effort these traditions took and also that my husband was not so into it. That was hard for me. This year it seems that he is willing to be more into the seasonal spirit and I am thankful but it has not always been that way. This year I also feel more relaxed about how things turn out. I want to enjoy my children and all we have been blessed with and focus on that.

  I think I have realized that no matter what happens...if you don't have money, if you can't have a big dinner, and can't purchase all the things, and if you feel like you are grieving...Christmas is really about love and peace and only Jesus can really bring that perfectly. Christmas is remembering His birth. You can get a lot of presents, eat a huge dinner, have a perfectly decorated tree and the list goes on but your heart can still feel empty inside. You can follow all the traditions in the world and still feel lost.

  Take some time to think of what Christmas means to you, how Christmas has felt to you in years past when you were a child. What kind of Christmas did you have? Was it stressful? Sad? Hard? Totally happy and perfect? Now that you are grown up you can take time to examine the why's and how's of your expectations around Christmas and why you do what you do. If you realize you have hurt around Christmas or sadness take time to examine why. You don't need to be stuck in that unless you choose to. Ask Jesus to help your heart heal.

  So as Christmas comes close ~  I hope you have many moments of feeling peace, safety and love. You are always cradled in Jesus' arms. You are perfectly loved and protected no matter how everything around you is.

Sending you love,
Tansy