Different Christmas

It's a different Christmas this year for me. Not in a bad way. Just in a different way. After spending 25 years doing the same thing (just about), it's hard to have to change things up.  Being married and having our own tree to decorate, having to split holidays down the middle.  Juggling around all those extras that you want to do and be a part of, but not sure if you'll be able to hold it all together if you fit it in.  It's hard. But I don't want to say it that way. It's challenging, but I'm doing it anyway.  What else can I do? 

I've been thinking a lot about reframing the way that I think about things.  After reading a lot about the word "choose" on Elise's blog and realizing that I can choose how I react to things or how I engage in them, I have the power to choose how it's going to go. I can only do that. Choose. 

So it is a different Christmas. It's hard to be away from my family, and hard to not get to be everywhere I was last year. It's hard to get Christmas shopping done and cards sent out, to be responsible for so much more this year.  But it's been fun too. It's fun to be with my husband, fun to get to start our own traditions, fun to make crafts and desserts and fun to sit on the couch and just watch our tree glow. 

I can choose to embrace it and do it and live it to the best that I can, or I can choose to let it bring down my Christmas spirit.  Even though there's a choice to be made, it's really a no-brainer, I think.  

The pictures above are just a few from this weekend.  We designed our own Christmas cards this year and decided to print them out ourselves and send them out. I used A6 envelopes in clover from Paper Source (they were out of red), and they are all addressed and ready to send out. I may post it after the family has received them. Maybe.   E and I also got to see Santa on Saturday at a family party. It was very sweet and all the kids enjoyed it (I loved it when one of them said so honestly, "I didn't know I was on the nice list!!"). Sorry for the fuzzy picture, not sure what happened there. 

And lastly, I took this shot of my Starbucks cup...at first just because I liked the fonts on it. It looks cool. But then I realized I actually liked what it said..."rekindle the season."  And that's kinda what I'm blogging about.  There's a lot of change, and a lot is different, but I've got to remember the reason we're celebrating all of this. It's not about presents and tree trimming, yes, those are the fun bits we celebrate. But it's about love, it's about the birth of Jesus and spreading his love in our lives. It's hard to be away from family and starting new traditions, but that love is the same, it doesn't change. It's always there, and it's always growing. We just have to choose to embrace that love all the time.

XO

P.S. in other news - this was my 100th post and we're almost at 5,000 pageviews! YAY!