Letting It Go: Re-prioritizing to Enjoy the Gift of Christmas

Way back in say, September, when I start to go a little crazy and just can't wait for Christmas, I started envisioning sugar plums and everything fabulous I would do to decorate our house for Christmas.  

It involved something like this...

 I found it on Pinterest.  By the way you can check out my pinterest boards here.   Vastly exciting, I know.  Anyway, so I purchased giant Christmas ornaments, mesh, springing glittered things, festive picks, you name it.  I was a regular shopping Ninja, watching for the 50% off at Hobby Lobby to occur...able to get in and get out to check it out and then when it happened, out of nowhere I pounced :)

So as I was saying back in September I decided on this and in October I bought all of the supplies.  I was ready.

 But here the ornaments sit today...on a bench in our foyer.  Ready to be hung, already.  Hello?

And here is only ONE of the bags of mesh and supplies from Hobby Lobby, still just waiting to be dragged out of the closet and hung up.  Still waiting...

And so here it is the 15th of December and I've made a decision.  There are only 10 days left until Christmas, folks.  And with gifts to wrap, a guest room to ready, menus to plan, and children to love on by the light of the tree, I am saying enough already.

Because whether I've realized it or not the stress of a to-do list still needing to be to-done is hanging over  my head like an albatross.  So no more.  Tonight I am returning all of the materials.  I could keep them, yes, but I am really trying to minimize the amount of crap I have laying around for projects I may one day get around to. And so, quite frankly, I just don't need it hanging around or over my head for another year.

I encourage you to do the same.  Maybe you don't have all of the Christmas decorations up yet.  Maybe you have this and that and that and this to do before the big day.

Let. it. go.

Go snuggle with your children.

Pour yourself a glass of milk chocolate coconut milk (available at Whole Foods and AMAZING!!) and address some cards to loved ones.

But cut yourself some slack, remember the true meaning of Christmas and try to simply enjoy the moments while you can.

You have my permission to blow it off.  Until next year :)

Stay tuned :)

Exciting things are happening with my blog, yo.

Can't wait for you to see them!

So stay tuned...and dressed.  It's the law :)

Oh, Christmas Tree!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and kickoff to the Christmas season.  I hope you did too!  As has been our tradition for the past 10 years, we met Nick's mom and dad the day after Thanksgiving to pick out our tree.  I can't believe it's been 10 years that we have been doing this!  So much fun!!!

 We go to a lovely Christmas tree farm called Hensler's.  It's been featured in Midwest Living and other publications and is just spectacular.  They have a Santa and for the past two-ish years Cal has wanted the first thing he does upon arrival to be visiting Santa.  Three years ago he was a little shy, and last year and this year he had no problem.  Here he is standing in line.

 He always whispers to Santa which is just adorable in my book.  Top secret stuff, right there ;)

 And we got a great photo of him and Santa.  Love this little boy's spirit so much.  He told Emma he told Santa what she wanted too since she was too much of a "scare-dy cat to tell him".  Sweet boy.

 Once outside the workshop we went to see how the reindeer were doing...

 They seem to be just fine :)

 Then it was off to wait for the tram to take us to the Christmas tree fields.

 It's all fun and games until people start getting nuggied...(and how do you even spell that word?)

 Here are our boys ready to go!

 She melts my little heart.  She is just so silly when you give her a saw.

 Gotta make sure that blade is straight.

 Here's my hottie standng next to our tree...to the left of him.  Yep, Griswold and his tree :) Do you see how tall that tree is?  My husband is 6 feet 4 inches tall, ladies and gents :)

Here are my boys next to our tree.  Seriously, doesn't it make Nick look super short?  I love them so much!  I wish Emma could have been in this picture but alas, she was chopping down the tree with her grandparents.  Every year her and Cal switch off and they love helping them. So cute!  

I wish I had the photos of Cal helping his Daddy cut our tree down but this Mom forgot to check the battery situation and my battery pack died right after this picture.  I've never had the huge Canon die before, it has a HUGE battery life so it must have been dead.  Dead, dead.  I was trying to remember but I think I had charged it last before our vacation, you know a month and a half ago.  I know you were just on the edge of your seat for that little tidbit of knowledge.  ;)

And then we went home and decorated it.  Or rather, we decided we would decorate it, none of our old school vintage lights would work so Nick went and bought a kajillion dollars worth of new LED lights but they had harvest gold colored bulbs and no "gumdrop" colors so we all schlepped to the store so Nick and I could bicker on the east side of lowes for the better part of an hour about lights and how many lights we need, and how the vast benefits of LED versus traditional will benefit the world for decades to come, only to buy lights EXACTLY like the ones my husband had purchased while braving Black Friday crowds with two children, except for the fact that they had purple bulbs instead of the dastardly harvest gold. And they were twice as much. So now kajillion x2.

 And breathe.  

Oh, I got an outdoor rug too.  So it was worth it.  :)

But we got home, decorated the tree with kitten safe ornaments and have gone on our merry way.  But we have this beautiful beast of a tree in the corner and it makes me happy.  We don't have much of a theme but I love it.  It's a reflection of our life and all of the memories we've shared.  I remember my friend Lisa giving me an "Our First Christmas" ornament before we eloped to Hawaii and I hang that and say a prayer of thanks for such an amazing marriage.

I hang the ornaments my Aunt Jan gives every year and I thank God for her and our family and our memories.  And then I remember I must buy more sprinkles!

I hang all of the precious ornaments my mom and Nick's mom have bought the children every year and I say more prayers of thanks...for healthy babies and safety for them.  For the naivety of childhood we've been able to afford them.  For the warmth our home and snuggly clothing envelopes them in.  For God always providing for their every need.

So for us our tree on Thanksgiving weekend makes perfect sense because we are whispering into the boughs plenty of prayers of thanks for His giving.  It all comes together for a gorgeous tree I just adore.  And that hopefully won't set our house on fire.  Fingers crossed folks!  :)

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas tree too and I hope you had a great holiday!

My love to you all!