The most wonderful time of the year....

Indeed it is! I love Christmas and I love everything it stands for. I love that we have a day set aside to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! He is the most important part of Christmas. In fact with out him there would be no CHRISTmas. I love all the traditions, old and new, that we participate in. The part I don't love is all the running here and there, buying this and that, spending your life savings on one gift for one child, and on and on and on. People get so caught up in the material things in life that they forget what it is all about. I had to step back and catch my breath recently about this very thing. I realized that in less than two weeks it would be Christmas and then it would be over. Just like that it would be gone! Starting this week I have a list of things to clean, bake, buy and wrap.....all before Christmas. Thursday I need to get groceries(because there is no other time of any other day to do it!) and finish buying the last few gifts on my list. Friday I have to start baking for my goody boxes I'm making and also bake cookies for the 20-25 children at my Nannie's house for Christmas. In addition to this busy morning, I will also have to start the cleaning process of my house because more family is coming over Sunday night to eat. Friday is also my man's birthday! He will be 34!(Happy early birthday!) So late Friday afternoon/night we are going out for his birthday while Mimi and paw watch the babies!(Thank you Mimi and Paw!) OK so I really wasn't stressed about this because I love spending time with him! Then there is Saturday. Saturday morning I have to finish baking for the goody boxes, cook for the family get together on Saturday night, and clean some more....all while my hubby is taking his mom Christmas shopping. HA! Then we have the party at 6:00 Saturday night. Then Sunday we have church. Then we are coming home and getting the house ready for guests and cooking some dishes for another family party at our house that night. Whew. Then the next week we have yet another family party on Christmas Eve with more cooking and baking and cleaning. We will then come home open our one traditional present(new pj's for Christmas morning... a tradition my folks did with us as kids!)then off to bed and preparing for Christmas morning. Then there is the rush of opening all presents on Christmas morning. All presents opened and done in 30 minutes! Then one last gathering on Christmas night....with yup you guessed it more cooking. As you can see I was beyond flustered! I thought Christmas here and gone in two very fast weeks and I wasn't going to be able to enjoy any of it! Then I got a grip on the situation. I thought it will only be a burden if I let it be one. How many Christmas's will I have a one year old, a two year old, and a three year old? Only one, this one. If I will just take it one day at a time this was all going to be fine. Instead of being upset about it, embrace it! So I plan on cooking with my kids and letting them help with what they can and take plenty of pictures. The kids love to help me cook. I also love to cook. Thank God we have many opportunities to turn off the TV, turn on some Christmas music, dance, sing, and bake. Instead of dreading the upcoming get together's, I'm taking the time to breath it all in. I am going to try and talk to each relative I can, because let's face we are not promised tomorrow. Family is very important to us so why should I let other scrooges dictate how I feel about them? And on Christmas day we will make it last as long as possible. How? Well we will let the kids play with their stockings and the gifts that Santa will bring. Then we will eat breakfast. After breakfast we will open one gift, let them play with it for a while, and then move on to the next gift and so on. That way Christmas last for more than 30 minutes. We will also read the Christmas story...the real one, you know about baby Jesus! So as I finish up this rather long post, my point in all of this is that I will not be a scrooge this year. No, I'm going to embrace my family because after all this will be the only year they are 3, 2, and 1! This truly is the most wonderful time of the year!.....JFowler