Packing Up

As a child, my family didn't celebrate Christmas.  There were no trees, no lights on the house, no stockings on the mantle... there might have been gifts, but I don't really remember why.  So, Christmas is actually kind of a new holiday for me, ever since I got married :)  I love the lights on the house and the ornament laden tree and all the decorations!!!  But with all the time and effort to make our home "Christmassy", the clean up is just as time consuming.

Today, I had only one thing on my "to do" list  -- de-Christmas our house.  I was determined to do it as quickly as possible (before I had to pick up Abby at lunch time)!  I zipped through the house taking down all the beautiful cards that we received, undecorated the garlands and lights off of our stairs, took all the ornaments off the tree... 

Here, I caught a snag in my time table :)  Instead of quickly, but carefully rewrapping each ornament and putting them all back into the ornament box, I sat and relished the memories behind each ornament.   There were so many, and each one ever so special!  I love the ones that each of the kids received on their 1st Christmas.  I love the ones that were hand crafted by the special members of our family.  I love all the different ones that we received for our wedding (we were married on the 21st of December, so we got great ornaments!!!).  I love the ones we've collected as our "special family ornament of the year".  Oh, how I love this part about our Christmas tradition!!!  I realized today, that ever since our children are old enough to decorate the tree, I've missed this part of Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the fun and chaos of seeing my kids racing to decorate the tree (and putting them all in one small corner =) !!!), but I do miss the quiet reflection of unwrapping each ornament and recalling the memories that came with each one.  As I sat and savored my moment of quiet, I was overwhelmed with God's grace and goodness to me and my family!  I am thankful that our culture celebrate Christmas extravagantly, not because I like to be extravagant, but because God's love was so extravagant in sending His Son to us!!!

If you are wondering, I did finish packing stuff away before having to get Abby :)  I took a quick lunch break and got all the outside lights down and packed away before dragging out the very dry and naked tree :(.  All that, before having to pick up the boys from school at 3:00 pm.

 Aren't you sooooo impressed???  LOL!  I think I did manage to kill our vacuum though... SIGH...

I promise to post pictures and stories from Christmas and more very soon... I am still figuring out this Mac :{