I love Christmastime. I always have and I do believe I will continue to randomly squeal like a school-girl around this time of the year. I love Advent and the quiet waiting and anticipation of celebrating Emmanuel, God with Us. I love working at a school where we can read and reflect on the Advent season. I love the creation of gifts for loved ones and the general spirit of generosity. I love that we are celebrating our first Christmas in our very own house. We've been married for 6 years and we've had many adventures in that short amount of time; our biggest one being the birth of our first child, Caitlin. We had to delay home ownership during years of intentional poverty trying to get a community business together and working towards higher degrees. But the blessings of more meaningful work have allowed us to own a small home and its the best thing in the world.
Here's what I SO love about Christmas this year:
Home: What do I love about our new home at this time? I love decorating with the few things we've acquired in our short married life, picking out a real tree at a neighborhood lot (though I long for those fancy Pines and Spruce's...the lower rung will do for now!), baking gingerbread cookies and slowly picking my way through the mounds of gifted goodies and snacks gracing our new, granite counters, our first sloppily-hung green Christmas lights gracing our porch beams (a feature I couldn't do without for our first house), stockings hung with care on our big family bookshelf (it may not have a fireplace...but this will ALSO do!). I am also enjoying a tree clad in all white lights with various collected ornaments, but we need more lights! And I'm already thinking ahead to the beautiful, natural pine swag I will buy for my handrail headed upstairs (which we are going to finally mount over break--we have to purchase a new one b/c the old one had too many layers of old paint and was poor quality).
Family: Driving around the metro area to be with loved ones is WHY we came back home and its so good to return home at the end of a large gathering, or sleep over and drive home in the morning. Having family members drop by to help eat through our Holiday treats and play with Cait and her new toys is also what melts my heart at this time.
Town: I love all of the Christmas decorations EXCEPT those giant blow-up globes that are so popular these days. We took Cait to a Holiday parade right after Thanksgiving and my favorite part are the bagpipes! I should really get some bagpipe recordings to play at home during the Holidays. We live in an area between two very adorable downtown scenes that have great Holiday shopping and small, independent stores with cute gift ideas. I only browsed this year because I bought a lot online, but its fun to look! I also got to sneak away for an afternoon of pre-break grading at a nearby bookstore where I enjoyed the Holiday jazz and a warm beverage (one of my favorite winter things) Now...it just needs to snow because we are walking distance from some GREAT sledding.
Expectations: I have many plans for over break and I spent this Boxing Day afternoon working on various lists, but, honestly, one of the most important things to me is relaxing because Stephen and I are both usually running ourselves ragged during the school terms. I am reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and I have Tina Fey's memoir on my nightstand as next in line. We will surely chip away at the household tasks since there is MUCH to do (curtains, railing, wall hangings, basement organization, organization, filing, etc.), but we are good about reminding each other to slow down and just be still and, yes, get a refill on coffee and cozy up on the couch.
Christmas time is here and my heart is filled to overflowing. I am tired from family gatherings, but grateful for all the loved ones we could see and treasure.
Enjoy!
