Christmastime

The best part about Christmastime is that you can begin celebrating it anytime you like.

If you think about it, Christian believers who are living the gospel actually celebrate Jesus year round. Right? So I don't quite understand what the big problem is with busting out the sparkling lights and other decorations in November to get things off to an early start.

Since getting divorced, I realized that our Christmas celebrations seemed rushed and went by too quickly. So last year, I began doing things a little differently—we started our Christmastime November 1. My children thought it was crazy at first, but when December 25 finally came around, they felt like we had a wonderful Christmas, fully enjoyed and not so rushed through.

The first thing is to decorate. What is so fabulous about doing decorating early is that you can ease into it, only doing a bit here and there until it's all complete. And you are finished by the time Christmas events and parties start up. There's no rush to get the tree done because it is done. And you've had time to truly savor the memories and stories and decorations.

We have been able to focus more on Christ's birth instead of all the hustle and bustle of the "holiday season."

With every other weekend gone with their father, we still can do all the fun things, watching Christmas movies, baking treats, sledding, going to Christmas concerts, and we have energy for it now instead of feeling a strange sort of burnout from rushing around too much.

We kicked off our Christmastime this past week with putting up our Candy Cane Forest and then watching Elf last night while we had Chinese food my oldest son bought for us. We even snuck in some Christmas music and a little service to a friend and her family before getting our dinner and treats for the night. It made my night to have all of my children together to begin our Christmas season.

I look forward to every single day for the next month and half until the new year begins. Christmastime makes the ending of another year absolutely magical.