Wishing you a sweet day of celebrating the most precious gift! 

I was so bummed when I realized in all my busy-ness I missed my chance to participate in the Christmas Tour of Homes

I am not much of a decorator. I can be a bit of a minimalist. So at Christmas the house feels especially decked out to me, even though compared to most it's probably not much.

I'm always a little sad how few people get to see, between constant running around and sickness. It just never seems like December ends up being a time when it's easy to have people over.

So I'm going to share with you here, so I feel like somebody's seen it!

Are you ready for a load of pictures???

First is my Martha Stewart jingle bell wreath.

This hangs on my front door the first half of the month, and is then replaced by a fresh, homemade evergreen wreath that my mother-in-law is kind enough to help me create every year.  I forgot to take a picture of the fresh wreath, so maybe you'll have to see that tomorrow.

This is our sweet little Jesse Tree, decorated with Miss A's hand-drawn ornaments (inspired by the ones you'll find here). This is our first year doing this, and it has been so great!  A wonderful way to refresh our focus every day.

This is my little nativity that Hombre bought me for our first Christmas because I just thought it was the cutest thing ever. I love it!

A little touch of color on my kitchen counter. Gingerbread house courtesy of my girls of course.

I have several fun pieces of decor that came from my crafty mother-in-law over the last several years. I love how they all kind of blend together and feel like a set.  This is the pinecone candleholder.

A festive snowflake.

The star. (Miss A's favorite)

And our Advent calendar. All the girls really enjoy this. Miss A keeps careful track of whose turn it is to flip the piece each day.

We collect new ornaments every year, and have so many great ones.

This is the nativity set my mom made for us when Miss A was a baby. The girls love setting it up every year.

I love to decorate with pictures.  These are my favorites from when Hombre and I were kids.

This is my Christmas album.  I add a few new pictures each year, so we can grab it anytime and look over all of our Christmases as a family.

We've built quite a collection of Christmas books. I like to set them all out where we can see them.  I love having extra splashes of color here and there.

The girls are given free reign to decorate the bedroom door and the fridge.

And I like to brighten the inside of the front door with all of the Christmas cards.

I forgot to take a picture of the stockings, but you can see those here. They are one of my absolute favorite pieces of decor.

The other is these…

I made handprints of each of my girls on their first Christmas. They think it's really fun to see how tiny their little hands were. And in my sappy pathetic-ness, it's a way of holding onto my babies. Miss E is always concerned that her's is so much smaller, and every time we have to explain that's because she was born closer to Christmas.

Last, of course…who doesn't love the glow of the Christmas tree?

Glad you could visit our home!

If you'd like to share some pictures of your Christmas, feel free to leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see.

Because no one wants to read Christmas links after Christmas is over, here's a few more I love.

the real hope of all wise men: God on the blue dot

the ultimate to do list completed

He came because I needed Him

The Choosing

When I'm stuck with a day that's gray and lonely, I just stick up my chin, and grin, and say…..oh…the sun'll come out, tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun…

Evidence of my current mood: this song came to mind, and my first mental response was "Someone better tell Annie that's a big fat lie!".

Nice, huh?

It's officially been a week in my world with no sun. 

And if that isn't bad enough, other circumstances have not been ideal either.

After four days of fever, we're seeing a break today, hopefully for good.

This was not part of my plan. This was not supposed to be part of our Christmas. Maybe it won't be. But it's only hit the one girl so far, and me being the every-hopeful optimist (that's sarcasm just so you know), I can't imagine it not taking out another. 

When the sickness first showed itself, I cried. I was so sad. So disappointed over all of the plans that would now be destroyed. 

I let myself mourn the loss, probably much more than I should have.  All the time the truth, calmly but firmly standing in my mind. 

It's not supposed to be about me. 

This is the way it's supposed to be.

I found myself going over in my mind the little series of questions that have come to be my reminder of truth when the circumstances aren't to my liking:

Does God have complete control? (yes)

So does that mean God has allowed this for my life today? (yes)

And aren't God's plans always for my best? (yes)

So why am I complaining? (……..)

As you can see, my list leaves very little room for how I think things are supposed to be. Since when am I the Creator of the Universe, who sees time from beginning to end, and is all-knowing and all-powerful?

Acknowledging the truth always puts a damper on the pity party.

So I have to say thankfully, by the second day of feverish girl, I was at peace with the circumstances.

Because really, what did I want so badly for this Christmas? I wanted our focus to be JESUS.

When all of my plans went up in smoke, I realized that though my ideals may have been sincere, really, what I wanted for Christmas was much more important to me than anything else. Those plans weren't about Him, they were about me.

So I've found myself in this place of peaceful acceptance, knowing that the plans God has are creating for me what I said I wanted but was too dumb to realize I wasn't getting.  A Christmas where we can be still and focus on Jesus.

But here's the thing. I've accepted it, I'm at peace. I'm thankful for that. But there's this kind of apathetic feeling about it all. Which is not the greatest.

Today I read this:

Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever & ever.
Psalm 145:2

And I was terribly convicted. This has not been the truth of my days lately.  In letting go of feeling sad and sorry for myself, I went too far and found the easy way was to let go of feeling anything at all.

I have not blessed and praised Him every day ever, but I have certainly not done it these last few days. 

If my focus is on Jesus, there should be joy!

Apparently instead I am going through layer after layer of realizing how much my focus is wrapped up in me.

So now, I will choose thankfulness and praise, that God is so faithful to open our eyes again and again to our own foolishness.

A prayer I wrote in my journal after reading this verse:

Thank you God that Christmas isn't about creating the perfect day, but about remembering, receiving, and anticipating the perfect Gift.

I went on reading in my Bible after this, and was so blessed to read the most wonderful description of that Gift:

But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved  us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7

Sickness or not, how can I not celebrate a gift like that?