The weather has turned cold here once again. Our mountains are sprinkled with a bit of snow and look ever so lovely. Every time I walk past our bedroom window I am mesmerized by the beauty of the mountains. We lived in Florida for many years and there were no hills or mountains where we lived. I always wondered if I would ever take the beauty of Tennessee for granted once I got used to seeing it on a daily basis. The answer is a wholehearted "NO"!!! I stand in awe of the Lord and the beauty that He created for our pleasure. Today is our Christmas shopping day. This morning I will be taking our second son and doing the grocery shopping for the next two weeks. This evening my husband and I will be heading out to shop for our children. We have never spent a tremendous amount of money on our children for the Christmas season so our children don't expect it. As a parent, that is a nice place to be. I spent yesterday afternoon planning out ALL the special things that we do for the holiday food list. We even give the gift of homemade goodies to several different people so I included those as well. Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals are easy to plan because they are the same every year. I like good traditions and food can be a great tradition. My family would agree.
I have spent the last few weeks writing down ideas about the Christmas shopping day. By today, I know what I will be purchasing for most everybody on the list. This helps me not to be overwhelmed with the whole shopping experience. I don't even like to shop so this is a day that could be very laborious for me if I wasn't prepared ahead of time. I will enjoy spending the time with my husband. I look forward to any time that we can squeeze out to be alone. We don't do it very often so it is a sweet treasure to each of us. I am sure we will grab a cup of hot coffee and something special to eat while we are out today.
grace and peace,
julie
3 comments:
Sounds like you are at a good place when it comes to Christmas, we are still working on that balance as a fairly new married couple. It's hard to forge your own path when expectations are already in place by family. We look forward to the day when we are the parents, and not so much the children (It's funny, I guess we are still in that role very much until the next generation comes along) anymore. :)
Andrea Cherie,
It took us many years to get out of that roll. It was gradual for our family. The year my dad died I realized how much the traveling was affecting our kids. My dad was diagnosed with cancer and he was given 6 months to a year to live. During the last year of his life, we traveled back to Ky. for every holiday including 4th of July. We spent as much time as we could with him because we knew the days were short. On the trip back to our home after the funeral, my daughter who was 7 at the time asked me if we could please never be away from her home again on Christmas. My other kids promptly joined in the chorus of wanting to spend the holidays at their home instead of driving 6 hours to Ky. This was in August so I knew it was something important to each one of them. Michael had suggested to our older kids at the beginning of this year that maybe we could go to Florida and do the whole Disney world thing for Thanksgiving this year. He fully expected cheers and excitement from the kids. Both of our older boys were very much against celebrating Thanksgiving away from our home at Disney World. They wanted no part of that. No, they wanted to be home right here in Tennessee with the same meal that they have always eaten every Thanksgiving on the table.
I still struggle when my mom is at my home because I sometimes feel pulled between being her daughter and doing things her way and for her and being a wife and mom to my own family. I usually ask my own family to put their desires on hold while she is visiting our home because she doesn't get to come that often. The day will come when the roles do shift a bit. It has been 21 years in the making at our home.
grace and peace,
julie
Such a breathtaking photo, Julie. I never get tired or complacent of God's creativity either. Its just wonderful to see His hand in our world, isn't it?
We are having a simple Christmas this year, too. Lots of handmade and siimple times shared with the ones we loved.
I giggled when I read about your boys reaction to Disney. Our boys would have reacted the same way. They are traditionalist through and through!
Christmas blessings,
Lea
Post a Comment