I love this time of year!!! What a week it's been. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday - tied w/Christmas...I just love the whole month or so long of everything that goes on...right up til New Year's Day. The day after Thanksgiving we had a dear friend from Maryland come to visit us and then we put up our Christmas tree and decorations late that night...and had pastor-friends over the next day. We are totally into the Christmas spirit!!!
I am not sure if any of you have started Christmas decorating yet...but do you enjoy it as much as I do? I could just sit and stare at the tree forever and listen to the "Classical Christmas" station on XM.
Our back lanai is done now (all the work is done on our house now) and I am thinking of putting another tree back there. My husband just put four lit up reindeer in the front yard, the ones whose little heads move. They look so darling.
I hope you all are as excited as me. I just love the wonder of it all. And I thank God for every Christmas I have. I think of one of my best friends who died about 12 years ago and it was at Christmas time and I remember how in his last weeks, he would just sit and stare at the Christmas tree and cry knowing it was the last time he'd be experiencing it all. Ever since then I really savor each year. I took it for granted so many times.
Yup...call me a sap, but Christmas is my favorite time of year!
DH and I are decorating for Christmas either tonight or tomorrow night, depending on how we feel after dinner (We had family over all weekend, so we're a bit tired! Plus, it is supposed to snow 2-3 inches overnight, so I may be in more of the holiday spirit tomorrow when everything is white!). Our entire house looks like the holiday section of a department store threw up each year when we get done decorating. We think we were blessed with a free real tree this year, too (a family from the E. Free church down the street from ours owns a Christmas tree farm, and they were so excited that DH and I planned the community Halloween outreach, they offered us a free tree. But we're not sure if it was for US, or for our church.... We'll have to clarify that soon!!).
But yeah - I have already heard my favorite Christmas song twice today (Christmas Canon by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra), and ventured to the mall for "day after Thanksgiving" shopping with my mom and DH. We were broke, but we had fun looking and getting ideas...
I am determined that this holiday season will be the best yet, and that I am going to shake this "funk" I've been in! I want to be happy, and spend time with friends and family - watch all the Christmas classics, drink Holly Nog, and listen to lots and lots of cheesy Christmas music.
And, of course, remember that it's all about Jesus - and that no matter what's going on in my life, He is what is good in it!
My dh is having his men's bible study tonight although it's his birthday, he still wanted to have it. So, I've been tidying up and getting all the candles lit and the Christmas music going....
I'm excited too!!! I can not wait to put my tree up. I would like to put out reindeer and lights as well, but probably won't. I also get very angry this time of year, because so many people celebrate Christmas this time of year, but do not celebrate Christ throughout the year. It ticks me off.
I need to get over it, b/c at one time in my life I was this way.
. We'll have to clarify that soon!!).
