Traditionally I am the type of person who refuses to put up or listen to an ounce of Christmas until after Thanksgiving. This year I caved to the desires of my girls and agreed to put the tree up early. We are spending the holidays with just the 4 of us and I did like the thought of making my home feel all holiday cozy. I was also thinking this would be easy...NOT!
With my girls breathing down my neck because I was not moving fast enough I got the tree out of the box and began putting it all together. As I plugged in the lights (it's a pre-lit tree) my heart sank as none of them came on. I began to mess with the tree and as the complaints of my girls rose so did my frustration. I worked for 30 minutes and gave up. Deciding that the next day I would deal with each individual strand of lights.
The next morning my oldest Kathryn got 3 strands to work and they were at three separate sections of the tree and only lit up about 1/3 of the tree. As reality began to sink in that finding the burned out lights would be horrible I decided I would just go buy us a new tree. Simple huh...nope. As I began to look at the prices of the pre-lit trees and think about our journey to being debt free I began to get sick to my stomach, I could not bring myself to spend the money. So I did the only thing I new to do, I went to find my scissors. Carefully and methodically I took the tree apart and began cutting off all the lights. I needed to unplug the lights to remove them but that would mean I did not know where the working ones began or ended. So as my girls watched in horror I began to remove them all!
Yesterday afternoon I finished removing all the lights and went to Lowes to get me new / cheap lights to put on the tree. Will they be attached to the tree...no, but I love how inexpensive they were. I also love that as I began to think about the soft glow they will put off in the room I felt my excitement begin to build. You see, one of the things I love most about Christmas is the decorations and sitting in a dark room enjoying the glow of lights. I love this so much we have Christmas lights hung in our homeschool room year round.
As I look back over my past couple of days and my early Christmas gone wrong, I find myself thankful. I am thankful that I stuck to my guns and did not go buy a new and unnecessary tree. I love that it allowed me to have a couple great conversations with my girls about turning lemons into lemonade. Most of all I realized that my desire to not bring out Christmas before Thanksgiving has changed. You see Thanksgiving is a national holiday and is focused on family and our blessings. As I have thought about all that I am truly thankful for I keep coming back to Jesus. You see without Him nothing in my life would have its true meaning. When I asked my youngest what she was thankful for she said Jesus' Holy Spirit coming to live in her heart. (she was just baptized) At that moment I realized that to me Thanksgiving was changing. Am I thankful for America and all the pilgrims did, yes I truly am. However, I am more thankful for the gracious, loving, crazy God who would forgive me and take with with all my dirt, grime and wickedness. I am thankful that he would send is Son to die on a cross for people who hate him. So for me I love how by the end of today my dining room looks beautiful with a Thanksgiving centerpiece and decorations and my family room will be dressed up for Christmas. I think a change of perspective is exactly what I needed!
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