THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

Christmas was wonderful this year. I so wanted to make sure that I slowed down to enjoy the season. It was hard to do this as I again left everything to the last minute and had so many grandiose plans that didn’t come to fruition, BUT I did take time with my family. Allen was gone to India for the first 2 weeks in December so that added on an extra layer of stress around the holidays. What was so wonderful was that our home was in a position that I could decorate and enjoy the feeling, sights, and sounds of the holidays. I love to see the lights and purely simple and beauty of my decorations. I also LOVE the feeling that is in my home around the holidays and the smells and joy that comes once the decorations are up. I think that is why I so love having them up early and dread taking them down. My house feels so sad and bare without them.
One great thing this year was my sister and her family came up and spent a few days right before Christmas Day. We made cookies and I loved watching them decorate them. They were so cute. Santa also made a surprise visit Christmas Eve morning while they were here. The boys were SO excited to see him. I am so glad that they came. They really made my holiday—even with the hustle and bustle of that time and trying to tie up the loose ends.
We have tried to start new traditions with our boys on Christmas Eve since we are now home for that night. We take them out to dinner and then go shopping for each other, come home, and wrap presents. We then open one present—new pjs of course and then we listen to my Grandma Sitterud read the Christmas Story. What a wonderful gift that we were given when Brother Law gave our family that recording that he did in the 1970s. We will FOREVER have her as part of our Christmas. This year we also watched the movie A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. I liked it and so did the boys, although there were a couple of parts that Jayson was hiding his head.
My goal next year is to get my shopping done early and focus on Christ more.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!