Hello, my friends. It’s been almost two months since my last blog post. I can’t even believe it.
Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned this website entirely. Sometimes life just moves quickly and time passes and you look back and realize it’s been a while….
Thanksgiving is behind us, the cold weather is starting to creep in, and we are looking ahead to Christmas. I don’t know about y’all, but this is the time of year where I sort of want to tuck in and cozy my home. That’s what my heart yearns to do, at least. It wants to bake, and decorate, and read, and just move slower all-around. I find that instead, I tend to let the month of December fly by without any of those things happening. I get so focused on what gifts to buy, and what events to bake food for, and trying to stay afloat when stress seems to be the name of the game. Folks, this is not how it’s supposed to be. We are forgetting the reason for the season. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Somehow, we have turned Christmas into a consumer culture extravaganza where the best gift wins and stress and finances are trainwrecks just waiting to happen. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of the things I do love about Christmas are spending time with family, eating good food, and opening gifts, but sometimes it feels like we stress out over having the best Christmas get-together that we lose the enjoyment of it entirely.
I challenge you (and I’m talking to myself) to take a step back and try to move slower and more intentionally this time of year. Do the best with what you’ve got. Get creative for gifts. Sometimes the best gifts are the homemade ones. There is no need to financially stretch yourself thin to get the “perfect” gifts for the ones you love. They will love you, perfect gifts or not. If you want to take a Saturday and bake and blast Christmas music and read and frankly just do nothing – you should do it! Just remember that Christmas is really about spending time together, loving on one another, keeping family traditions alive, and celebrating the light of the world.
Happy Holidays,
Katie