Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Joy of December

This December it took me longer than usual to get into the holiday spirit.  I know everyone has the holiday moment meltdowns but I was starting to think that I would just not feel "it" this year.  Then a few days ago my fog started to clear and I was able to refocus.  I began thinking that the Joy of Christmas was around me in a lot of little moments this year instead of one great big TA-DA moment. 

For starters we have not only got to see 1 Christmas performance - but 4!  Carissa performed beautifully with all the Kindergartner's. 
 Audrey performed with the show choir at 2 Holiday events and then again with the 3rd Grade Class at school.  She had a solo one night and just rocked her lines!
 We typically never go see Santa unless the line is short and we just happen to bump into him.  (One time we saw him and Mrs. Claus in their car...).  This year we lucked out and the girls even got to take a picture. 
 And, as I was going about not finding the Christmas Joy this little lady (we named her Candy Cane Jane) showed up and has been doing mischievous things daily.  Two days ago we found her on top of the fridge with the food coloring and she had dyed our milk green!    I owe her a big thanks for continuing to help keep the magic of Christmas alive in our home.
 No holiday season is complete without the Nutcracker Ballet in this family.  Grammy treated us, once again, to the special performance.  The girls looked beautiful and were so good.  They laughed at the Russian dance and were mesmerized by the Sugar Plum Fairy.
 We even arrived in time to listen to one of the dancers read the Nutcracker story before the show. 
In addition to all that we have been reading from our Advent Calendar and studying the bible every night.  It is something we have never done before as a family and the girls LOVE it.  Last night we learned that Joseph and Mary walked about 80 miles to get to Bethlehem - that is almost from here to Lake Havasu! 

It is clear to me now- 4 days until Christmas - that while I was so busy in my fog the Christmas Joy was happening without me.   I didn't even have to walk 80 miles to see the miracle - I just needed to look up - it was right here the whole time.

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