It's Christmas Eve eve!

Well, the stockings are hung. They are filled with bits of construction paper glued together and colored by the kids for each other.

The tree is decorated, with the smooshy soft ornaments around the bottom and the breakables at the top. And the skirt is on upside down.

The cookies are made, but already half gone. We're going to have to make more for Santa!

We have the boxes still sitting in the dining room from putting the tree up, and they'll probably still be there in two weeks when we take the tree back down.

Christmas around here is crazy. My kids love to decorate, and bake and "help", and it's too much, sometimes! But I can't believe how much less stressful it is for our family than for a lot of others I've heard from.

We don't go to get pictures with Santa. With six children, there's no way we could get them all to look at the camera at once, anyway. We have an opportunity to go to one for free at our church, but we missed it this year due to basketball. No one even noticed. Woot!!

Santa only brings three gifts per child and they go under the tree on Christmas eve, so there's not as much wrapping, then peeking, unwrapping, re-taping, ripping, etc. The tree is bare underneath until Santa comes. The stockings are filled by Mom and Dad, and they know it, and those aren't filled until Christmas eve, either. So much easier!

We don't do a lot of baking. We make cookies for Santa, and a few extras just because, but I remember going to my Grandmother's every year for an entire day just to bake, and while it was fun, I can't imagine the time and expense of that now.

Don't get me wrong, we have our traditions, but they do not involve a lot of shopping and standing in line. We don't spend entire days baking. We watch the same movies every year, and we always go to Grandpa's house. And there is always a game of Hearts to be played.

Giving gifts is fun, as are all the baking and shopping and decorations, but to me, the best part of Christmas is family. Christmas to me is about being together. Remembering Jesus and His birth and the miracle of that. Remembering His poverty, and the gifts He both gave through His life and death, and received from the kings who recognized the true King of kings.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Another blizzard? Yep!

Who would have thought that two weeks after the last blizzard, we'd have another one so quickly!

12-14 inches of snow, and blowing wind for two days, and my husband had to call in to work on Christmas day (missing his double time!) because we couldn't get out of the driveway! We started out to mass on Christmas Eve, and decided that we should probably stay home (it's not a holy day of obligation, anyway) and sure enough, an hour later, our driveway had blown shut. We did our own little readings, and read "The Night Before Christmas" and opened one present each before heading off to bed.

Two days of being snowed in with new Christmas presents is a good way to spend a blizzard, I think! We had a wonderful meal, we played, and relaxed and got all the laundry caught up. I even had a chance to finish up a couple of knit/crochet projects. The kids were having fun, everyone played nice, and a good time was had by all. I will definitely remember this Christmas for a long time!

Yesterday, my husband and I were able to shovel out the driveway, then make it to the grocery store for some milk. On the way back into the driveway, we got stuck across the street in the neighbor's driveway (we had needed to back up to gain enough momentum to get up our own driveway). Several neighbors came to help us out, and with the aid of some good old sand, finally got into the garage. That's what it's all about. Helping hands, kind words and friendliness. They go a long way!

Decoration Dilemma

Ok. We all know that Christmas doesn't really start until Christmas day, right? I mean, it doesn't start when you see the first Christmas decorations in the store. It isn't the day after Thanksgiving, either. The Twelve Days of Christmas are actually the twelve days from Christmas day to Epiphany on January 6th.

So my dilemma every year is when to put up the tree?

Before we were "practicing" our faith regularly, we got into the tradition of putting the tree up the weekend of Thanksgiving, and decorating the entire house. But as the kids kept coming, and there was always a relatively small child around, it has become harder and harder to deal with the tree and all the trimmings for the entire month of December!

Then, we would take the tree down the weekend of New Year's, and Christmas was officially over.

But, really, the celebration of Christmas is a time to reflect on the birth of our Lord Jesus. The commercialism of this holiday has really gotten out of hand to the point that the day after Halloween, there's already Christmas candy in the grocery stores.

So this year, we compromised. We put up the tree, we put lights on the house, but the stockings will be hung and baby Jesus will go into the nativity scene on Christmas Eve. Maybe that will help us remember that the thing we are really looking forward to is the Gift that we have recieved in Jesus and not on the trappings, so much.

I hope that next year, we can forgo more of the trappings (namely, the tree) until a little closer to Christmas.

It's a struggle for me as a Catholic mom sometimes. I love the Christmas season. I love to shop, I love to decorate, I love to bake. But I want to recognize the holiday for what it is, not just for what it has turned into. And I want my children to understand that, as well. It's becoming harder and harder to hold our faith up in this over commercialized and multi media circus that is America these days.

For now, we'll enjoy the lights and the tree, and each other. Advent is a time of preparation, after all. We can prepare ourselves for His coming, and enjoy the trimmings of the season at the same time.