A JOYful Christmas

I know it happens every year, but I swear the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas has passed in the blink of an eye.  Somehow I managed to stay on top of almost everything, even buying, wrapping and shipping all of our family's presents in time to get it there several days before Christmas AND even avoided expedited shipping costs.  That right there is a Christmas miracle.

I'm not sure why, but this Christmas season has been one of my all time favorites.  I've always loved the word "joy", and having decided to use it as the middle name of our second little girl it suddenly seems to stand out even more.  I notice it everywhere and have just felt it.  It has definitely been a joyous season, and entire year.  In some ways I wish I could just bottle up the year and play it on rerun in my mind for the rest of my life.  It was that good.

I'm sure a lot of the joy this season has to do with creating the build up of excitement for Lyla as she realizes more and more who Santa is, and to see her excitement and anticipation of presents.  At least once a day she sits by the tree, grabs a present and says "uh! uh! uh!", pretending to tear at the paper, then looks at me and says "open?"  I tell her we have to wait until Santa comes, and we talk about what she wants and if she thinks he'll bring it.

But I think the real reason for such a lighthearted and joyful Christmas is that even though we talked an awful lot about Santa and reindeer and presents and cookies, we really focused a lot more on the real reason for Christmas.  We played with her little nativity scene and she loved setting out the "baby cheez-us" and mama and dada.  I'd often find the donkey on top of the manger instead of the angel, and the baa (lamb) packed up in her back pack, but she loved that nativity scene.  Reading books about the story of Christmas and explaining why we give gifts, and celebrating Jesus' birthday was a good lesson for Lyla, but truthfully I think it made a huge impact on my own perspective during what can be the most crazy and stressful part of the year.

I seriously can't believe tomorrow is already Christmas Eve, but I've never been so excited and can't wait to see our little girl's face light up Christmas morning. 

Wishing you all much JOY this Christmas!

- K