It's Christmas Time

So the Christmas season has been pretty crazy this year, right? Last year at this time we were just starting to get settled into our new home, and everything was very last minute and all that. I thought surely this year would be much more calm and relaxed since we are fully settled and I tried harder to get my lists and things in order a few weeks ahead of when I would begin shopping, etc. But somehow everything feels nearly as rushed and hectic as it did last year, and I didn't even decorate my house this year!

Ok, about that...I am blaming the no decorations on my 7 month old puppy. It might have been fine, but she still sometimes gets a hold of things she shouldn't and I didn't want to spend a month straight watching her every single move to make sure she didn't eat my favorite Christmas ornament. We kept saying we would go upstairs and get our stockings out of storage and at least put them and a couple of favorite Christmas items up, but it never happened. So I am bummed that my house doesn't look the least bit festive...except for a couple of Starbucks coffee cup ornaments that I bought last week and set on my mantle...but I don't suppose those really count (although I have wanted a set of them every year when I see them in the stores).

My mom and I continued our tradition of getting together and doing Christmas baking, for the 3rd year in a row now. I have wondered since then, what traditions have Landon and I made in our own family? (Plus our group at church has talked about this...and at the time I couldn't really think of anything.) We usually go to the Opryland Hotel every year when it's decorated all Christmas-y. We normally have all our decorations up at home and I try to find us a new "couple" type of ornament, although I couldn't find one I liked this year. (Boo.) We watch the Christmas specials and movies that are on tv every year, though I prefer my dvd copies since they are uncut. We take a picture every December for our Christmas cards that I send out, and I have made a little picture book for only those pictures of us every year. We usually go to the Christmas Eve service at our church each year.

This one sounds silly, but apparently one of our traditions has become getting presents early and not wrapping anything. Landon's birthday is 2 days after Christmas, so a lot of times he gets something bigger to count for both events. If what he wants is also something I want (and is expensive enough, i.e. the Wii...or last year it was this house! just kidding...although we didn't really do any other gifts last year since we bought the house in mid-November), then that's what we do. We usually get each other something small that is a surprise, and also a card on Christmas day, but we haven't done the traditional all gifts are a surprise thing since our first couple of Christmases.

So this year Landon got a PS3, and he's had it for probably a month or so. (Just in case they sold out early, lol!) Then he told me to just get some stuff that I wanted, so I ordered a few things online or bought them for myself when I was out shopping for other stuff. Then I come home and show him what he got me!

I decided to order most all of the gifts we're giving online. I must say that is the way to go, so long as you give yourself plenty of time to receive them. I have been so busy doing other tasks and shopping locally that I haven't wrapped a single present yet, although I am proud to say that I am FINISHED (yay!) shopping except for one last gift (and I have no idea what to get this person).

I've been trying to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of this season, but I must confess that I'm doing a pretty pitiful job of it. There are many things that I still love about this time of year, just as much as I loved it when I was a kid; yet I have allowed too many things to distract me, and I have yet to sit down and read the Christmas story myself this year...or be very still long enough to listen to my Savior speak to my heart. It's so easy to get caught up in what your giving, and even as a "grown up", what you are getting! I hope to take this coming week of Christmas to really slow down and enjoy all that I have been blessed with, and especially to enjoy being with my loved ones. I know this sounds cliche and all that, but I don't care. I wouldn't even be here if God had not sent his son to be a baby for me. By the way, if you have never heard the song "Born to Die" by Bebo Norman, now is the perfect time to go get it off iTunes or somewhere and listen to the words. I keep it on my iPod all year long because it's such an awesome song of God's greatness and His love for me.

Now off I go to quietly try to enjoy what is left of this Christmas season. I still have many things left to do, but I think my heart will be more joyful, and hopefully more peaceful and still.