What I Really Heart

As all moms know, December is CrAzY!  Not only is there the regular schedule to keep up with, but you have added in the seasonal schedule: decorating, cooking, Christmas cards, gift buying & wrapping ~ to just name a few.  Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but instead it turns into the most dreaded & miserable time of the year.

Ask me how many people I've heard complain about their extended families & having to spend time with them.  Ask me how I felt last night at the Galleria.  You know what, I felt sad.  I saw unhappy people trying to find gifts for people they don't really like with money they probably don't have.  The whole season gets kicked off with Black Friday which has turned into something ugly & selfish.  I don't want to be that way at Christmas.  I want to feel the love of my family.  I want to laugh and make happy memories.  I want to lavish in the simplicity of the king who set aside his heavenly splendor to be born as a baby; live a mortal life; and serve as a sacrifice for all mankind.

I have several decorations that are my favorites.  I love the tea stained angels, the carolers, and the hand print angels my children made in preschool.  I love the Advent calendar my mother-in-law gave my children many years ago; and I love my nativity that Hopson and the children gave me a long time ago.  These decorations are not fancy & didn't cost an arm and a leg.  The simplicity of them really resonates what the season is to me.  Simplicity.  The little ordinary joys that communicate what the season is about.

This is the definition of simplicity in Merriam-Webster's dictionary:
  

sim·plic·i·ty

noun \sim-ˈpli-sə-tē, -ˈplis-tē\
: the quality of being easy to understand or use
: the state or quality of being plain or not fancy or complicated
: something that is simple or ordinary but enjoyable

I find so much happiness in my children putting their day's animal, star, wise man, shepherd, palm tree or purple cat on the calendar.  All the children (even the 20 & almost 18 year old) like putting their parts on the calendar, and I like to watch them.  I think it's because right now, we have one camel as a star & one in the manger, a palm tree star, a sheep where the north star goes & purple cat.  (We have the purple cat because we lost one of the trees & my sister had the purple cat handy.)  There could have been a purple cat around when Jesus was born...who's to say there wasn't.  Elizabeth has threatened to hurt anyone who moves her pieces out of the crazy places she's put them.  Oh my...those children make me giggle.  They make me remember the beautiful simplicity of the season.

So this Christmas, if you find yourself in a tizzy (INATZ) focus on those few things that bring you and your family true Christmas joy, because if you do, it will help you focus on the true simplistic beauty of the season.

Celebrating Life & wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
~ashley

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