on the 12th day of Christmas... wait... there are 12 days?!

December 21st- 4 more days till Christmas!!! Tomorrow we light the final candle on our Advent wreaths before the white candle in the center (which a lot of people don't do, but I love) on Christmas day.

Last year I realized I was doing Christmas in a way that was actually robbing me of a rich experience. Not that I was completely missing the reason for the season, I would never say I've actually done that thanks to how my parents brought my siblings and I up.  However I will say that until this year, I missed a depth and richness that comes with Advent- because I wasn't really observing Advent outside of a little calendar filled with chocolate and... yep... that's about it.

My husband and I are Christmas freaks. If you were to look in our storage space under the stairs you would see that other than baby clothes waiting to be used again, almost the entire thing is boxed in red and green rubbermaid bins. We start celebrating in November, when TSO has their first concert of the season here locally. We start with a winter village, eventually the tree comes out- and although we wait for anything truly Christmas-y until the day after Thanksgiving, we really have very little decorating to do in December if any. We love it, we love the baking, the movies, the scented candles, the fires in the fireplace, the lights, the music, the ministry, the events, the parties, the gift giving and receiving- really the only thing that brings us stress year after year is stringing the lights on the tree (why is it that every couple I know runs into this? God bless the person who invented the pre-lit Christmas tree).

So what's different this year from last? Well, I can tell you that if anything we are more busy than we were last year. However our perspectives have changed. We are realizing that our vocation is marriage and our family, and we are stronger than ever viewing it as the sacrament that it is(although we still have our weak and ugly moments, we're human after all). We try and view things from a Kingdom perspective, making choices that will make an impact in our lives and the lives around us over things that will simply keep us busy. We still did our decorating the way we like too, we still carry on with our baking, music, movies, ministry and events, but this year would be different if only that I was going to seek my Savior in a new way, anticipating that He would make an appearance in my life in a deeper way.

Gabriel eats, mom prays

This year I decided to just dive in. I wouldn't do everything "right", but neither would I miss everything. I rearranged my thinking after learning the historical calendar of Christmas over the retail world/ABC's 25 days of Christmas version. Advent is the beginning, a season of preparing our hearts and drawing closer to God as we anticipate reliving the coming of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, in the most miraculous and humble of ways. I found a great daily devotional online through Creighton University that really challenged my heart to draw toward God in deeper ways, and was in today's language. I wouldn't let the business of the season rob me and mine of that this year. We purchased an Advent Wreath last year and have been lighting the candles every Sunday (except one where we were out most of the evening, so we waited until we had an hour or two to do it right later that

St Nicholas visited!

week). I wrote down things we really didn't want to miss (the live nativity at our Church, St. Nicholas Day, daily chocolate advent calendar, riding around to see the lights neighbors have put up as a family, making time to pray every morning before Gabriel wakes up or while he is eating breakfast if he wakes early, making Gabriel's yearly ornament, a few baked goods that it wouldn't be right not to have on Christmas day, giving to local charities, getting Asian food at some point the week before Christmas, mail out family gifts, wrap presents, etc.), and have given myself permission to think of everything else as extra. My pintrest account is full of fun ideas- but that doesn't mean we need to do all of them, I have years to pull from these ideas. If we find ourselves with the time and desire to do something that didn't make the "must" list, that's fine, but I'm not going to stress out and attempt to be super mom and ruin the things we are doing in the process. Which brings me to my next lesson learned.

I discovered last year that the 12 days of Christmas actually begin on Christmas day. Wait, what?! Now,

most people may already have known this, but somehow it had escaped my knowledge for 27 years. Gone

are the post-Christmas-day blues, we have 12 days to celebrate Christmas, enjoy the tree, the Christmas magic, bake things that didn't get made prior to Christmas, listen to music, watch movies, remember and teach about Christ's birth with activities and fun stories- gone is the pressure to do everything in one day and tear everything down immediately feeling like failures if we didn't remember everything we wanted to do or ran out of time!! If we decide we would end up stressed trying to do it all in one 24 hour period (minus 8 hours for sleep, 3 hours for toddler naps=13 hours), we can wait until the next day/evening- or even week. If someone has a melt down or something goes just completely wrong, that's okay, there are 11 more days that can go right! Now that doesn't mean we are going to torture our kids, gifts will still be given and opened on Christmas morning. But wow, what an eye-opening relief!

So how is this year different? I am more rested and at peace, I am not pressured or stressed, my heart is in an amazing place with my Savior, all the extras aren't weighing on me, I have time to nest and prepare for my own little baby's upcoming birth and thus identify even more with Mary and appreciate her in new ways as she didn't have anything to nest with except some swaddling blankets and hopes that Joseph would find a private place in a town or along the roadside when she delivered. Advent, Christmas (all 12 days), and all the activity within are now a beautiful blessing instead of a never ending to-do list, and that has made this little experiment worth every bit of effort that it has taken not to give into the temptation of trying to be super mom instead of working with the talents, skills, and limits that God has blessed me with in myself and each member of my little family.

"You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart" Jeremiah 29:13