Every year around this time I start counting the days. Not until Christmas. Not like one of those signs that tells you how many shopping days you've got left.
I count every day around dinnertime. When I'm just starting to prepare our dinner, and I already need to turn on all of the lights in the house because it's dark outside.
Every morning when I linger in my bed….refusing to start a day without a peak at the sun. (As you can imagine this has led to a significant delay in our daily schedule.)
I count down to the shortest day of the year. I tell myself "almost there". "Not much longer". And "after that, every day will get a little bit longer".
I know some people love the early nights. They take advantage of the darkness and send the kids off to bed hours earlier than they could get away with the rest of the year.
I've been diligently working towards a heart of gratitude about the excess darkness this time of year. I don't want to be a complainer. But it can truly be work for me to try to appreciate the early nights and late mornings.
I suppose that's why I find myself so enamored with one particular aspect of the Christmas season.
Lights.
The beauty in the darkness. The one really good reason to appreciate the early exit of the sun each day. Because the lights just wouldn't be as pretty against a summer sunset kind of sky. They're only so beautiful because of their boldness against the dark.
We visited the local courthouse square this weekend. All decked out for Christmas. I do feel so thankful this time of year to be living on the outskirts of our state's "Christmas City".
This makes me enjoy the dark. It's just so pretty.
If I had more patience I would learn how to take really glamorous Christmas light pictures. Instead I just settle for the best I can get. Maybe next year I'll attempt to learn.
We put lights on our house for the first time this year. I always want to do it . And every year it just seems like one more unnecessary expense. So we just don't do it. We talk about saving some money and trying to do it the next year.
This year I was tired of putting it off. I love the lights. Our girls love the lights. We needed our own.
One lone little strand outside, and one more inside the front windows. It's not much. But I love it. It makes our house glow at the end of our dark street.
I'm really kind of glad we never got around to Christmas lights until now. Before I certainly would have chosen all white lights. But my recent love of color had it's influence, and I think it's so much fun.
Of course I do still love the glow of white lights in our living room.
I've been turning them on the second it starts to hint of dusk outside. Trying to warm our house with the glow before the cold darkness takes over.
I never considered them as anything more than plain old Christmas lights all of my growing up years. But now, probably because I'm getting so old and contemplative about everything, their brilliance always draws me to consider and savor the reason for Advent.
Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
Isaiah 60:1
Around here, as soon as the day after Thanksgiving hits, everyone is ready to go full force towards Christmas.
Last weekend we enjoyed beautiful warm weather while we visited a farm just down the road.
After a leisurely hay ride, we had fun picking out our first live Christmas tree as a family.
That night we sat with friends, only slightly chilled, and enjoyed the city light parade.
This weekend we were so excited to have family from out of town (and a much warmer climate I might add) join us for the annual Christmas parade.
The delightfully warm weather of last weekend had gone on it's way, and was replaced by gray skies, sleety snow and thirty degree temperatures.
We started the parade freezing, but hopeful.
Enjoying the festive fun of the snow…
As the parade marched by and the snow kept falling, temperatures kept dropping.
By the end of the parade we were all feeling beyond frozen and ready to escape.
After recouping in a nearby restaurant we headed home. By that time there was a solid layer of snow on the ground and it was all quickly turning to ice.
The drive home was…slightly terrifying. A little bit of slipping and sliding by us, but nothing compared to the people around us… running off the road, spinning in circles and sliding across lanes of traffic. I was much more scared of them than the actual road.
But we made it home alive, and without anyone creaming us, so we were all thankful for that. Of course after the frigid morning and frightening trek home, none of us felt like braving it all again and going back out for the courthouse lighting. I was a bit sad about that, but not sad enough to go! Traditions are flexible right?
We listened to this song while driving and it made me feel a little bit like I was living in a fun Christmas-time movie.
This time last year a little bird started spending it's nights under the shelter of our patio. Every day it would come back and tuck itself into this little corner.
We can see his little perch perfectly from the dinner table, and would have fun making up stories about him during our evening meals.
Spring came, outside warmed up, and Chirp went on his way.
That was the end of that.
Until a couple weeks ago. The first real cold of this year set in. I was working busily in the kitchen and happened to glance out the window.
There was Chirp, tucked back into his cozy little corner all sheltered from the cold and rain.
After so many months it had never occurred to me that we might see him again.
He's been back every night since, a couple of times even bringing a friend along.
It's sentimental and silly, I know, but it makes me happy that our home is a place of refuge for this tiny little creature.
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns;
Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 6:26
