Thanksgiving JOY

Christmas seems to start earlier every year.  While stores are focused on sales and quick to replace pumpkins with pine trees, people also appear to be yearning for the season a little sooner.  Maybe because Christmas is a favorite holiday of many, but maybe also because people need more joy.

On the road, the hodgepodge of the holidays hits you with each passing mile.  Ghosts, pumpkins, harvest wreaths, inflattable Santas and giant penguins are scattered from house to house.

Thanksgiving, a celebration of gratitude for our blessings, has nearly been replaced by the countdown to the ultimate shopping day.  Families no longer linger over pie and coffee but are out the door and off to the mall, while the dishes soak.

When I was a little girl, the wait for Christmas seemed unending.  Now that I'm older, time passes much more quickly.  One can sit and almost watch it slip away.  No matter how much you will it to slow, there is no stopping the ticking of the clock or ending of another day.

It's already the middle of November.  

The busyness of the holidays are among us and, before you know it, another year will be gone. 

Choosing to pause in gratitude is how I welcome the season.  Focusing on thanksgiving each day keeps me from getting swept up in the chaos that can become christmas.

Recognizing my blessings is the best tradition I can think of to celebrate the birth of my Savior.

Because, to me, Thanksgiving isn't just a day - not even just a month -but something I hope to encompass every day of the year.

Gratitude = JOY 

In the search for the perfect season, slowing down in Thanksgiving might just be the unexpected gift people are looking for - and one that can never be found in the store.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for JOY to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

    come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with Thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Not just a day, it's a season...

I'm surprised at the number of people who take down their tree and pack up the decorations so soon after Christmas.  I guess I just love this holiday too much to confine it to a single day.  I look at it as Christmas is not just a day, it's a season and a spirit, and one I want to hold on to for the rest of the year.

I enjoy sitting by the fire surrounded by twinkling lights.  Hours could be spent daydreaming into the tree, pausing on each ornament and recalling the memory of when we first brought it home.  Christmas night we snuck out to the hot tub and were whisked away into a winter wonderland.  It was a beautiful and peaceful way to end such a special day, mounds of white frosting all around us, soft snowflakes drifting through the air, and to watch the sparkle as the lights cast a soft glow on the snow.

We spent Sunday afternoon holed up in the house being lazy and catching up on more Christmas movies we've recorded.  I'm committed to watching them all...even if it does take me the rest of the year!  We ate leftovers and snacks, never really having a sit down meal but it was a nice change.  And we spent the remainder of the day playing board games, until Noah's cousins surprised him with a visit.  They are nearly grown now and he doesn't see them often.  It made my heart smile to hear them laughing and playing in the floor, like old times.

Last night, we treated Noah to dinner and a movie.  It was a nice steak house but he ordered a burger.  The waiter asked him how he wanted it cooked and he glanced confused between the waiter and me.  After I said "well done" and it was just us, he whispered, "nobody has ever asked me that before!"  Tim and I just giggled, as we always love sharing new experiences with him.  The newest Narnia movie was our choice and such a wonderful one.  It is my favorite of the three and I think I could watch it again and again.  If you see one movie this year, this would be a great one.  We ended last night with a leisurely drive through the Fantasy of Lights.  Noah created his own carriage ride by opening the sun roof and riding atop my truck.  Among the magic of the lights, I hope he felt like the little prince he is to us.

I've so enjoyed the past week and all the special moments of the season.  It's a blessing that I have even more time off, for the remainder of 2010, and so I plan to soak up every ounce of Christmas that I can.  Too soon, the busy life of juggling schedules,work, and school will return.  I'm soaking up the spirit of this season to last me through all of the new year.