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Christmas 2013

2013 November 14
by WWGD

Screen Shot 2013-11-13 at 7.42.15 PM

I came across this post about the holidays the other day and certain parts of it really resonated with me:

Use the time off at the end of December to have some wonderful, deep time with each member of your immediate family.  Your whole family will start the year feeling energized and connected by how you’ve spent these days together.

Give presents that delight the receiver, and therefore delight you.  You don’t go over budget, and most of the time your present is something you make or do for the recipient– with your child, easily and joyfully.

Feel healthy and maintain a steady weight.  Instead of overeating, you feed your hungry heart with connection to others, and with giving to others.  You spend time outdoors. You cook healthy food. In short, you nurture your own body and soul, as well as your children’s.

Find deep meaning this year in brightening the season for others.  Your kids begin to discover the spirit of the season and feel the gift of being angels to others.

Feel clarity, going into the new year, about the ways you want to make your life different in the new year.  You even make a plan that will be easy to stick to, that will help you change ONE important habit.

You see, I love Christmas. I love it with all of my little girl heart and all of my big girl hopes and dreams.

I always loved Christmas and then three years ago, Kai was born just five days shy of it. It was meant to be the most perfect, joyous holiday ever and instead, it was the most heartbreaking. You can read about that here. So the next year, when he turned one, Christmas had to be perfect. Not a tinsel out of place. Not a cookie gone unbaked. Not a memory not made to perfection. Christmas became a symbol of happiness and joy that I almost started to resent because it felt like every year was another opportunity to make up for a terrible Christmas gone terribly wrong…and I never wanted to stop making up for it.

But this year, 2013, will be different.

Sure, there will still be gifts and cookies and tinsel and lots of the beautiful, frivolous, fun things that make the season the season.

But there will be a little more reflection. There will be a little more meaning. There will be a slower pace and a shorter to-do list. There will be a new place for Christmas in my little girl heart that is focused on family and true inner joy and peace and gratitude. There will be a simplicity in it, a more meaningful outlook on everything the holidays bring to us: friends, family, celebration, twinkly lights, champagne to fill our glasses and toast to the year…

In just six weeks from today, it will all be over. It never fails to amaze me how Christmas becomes nothing but a memory in just 24 very short hours. It will be done and talk will turn to the new year and goals and resolutions and what lies ahead. And then a few days later, life will resume its normal course and we will go back to schedules and deadlines and budgets and birthdays.

But I want this year’s Christmas – and all the good that will come with it – to truly last forever.

*image above via here, credit to VisualPhotos.com

5 Responses
  1. Corey permalink*
    November 14, 2013

    that’s a sweet piece of peace right there 😉

  2. Heather B permalink
    November 14, 2013

    I am of the same exact feeling – I am making a lot of gifts this year and really trying to just streamline everything to just enjoy the simple moments of the season.

  3. Liz Duncan permalink
    November 14, 2013

    Love it!! Thank you for reminding me to take each day slow and to soak in all the holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas) fun! I have my parents, 5 sisters and 9 nieces and nephews and we all live in a 20 mile radius so we often forget how much we need each other because we are always seeing each other. This Christmas I will try and remember to tell them how important they are to me because who knows how long we’ll all be around.

    Holidays are my favorite!

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