Holiday-ed Out

Our family has been busy enjoying the holidays -- traveling, visiting, eating, playing, singing, buying, praying, giving, all that. We survived celebrated Christmas for a few weeks, including 5 family get-togethers! And now we've rung in the new year here at home. 

I love to look back at my blog and see how far we've come and how much we have all grown and changed over the year, mostly for the better. I didn't get to sit down at the computer very much last year, but here's our first blog of the new year, with more to follow, I hope:

Christmas and I have a love/hate thing going on:

I LOVE to see family and friends and visit with them all. They're so mean for ever leaving.

I LOVE seeing kids get excited over the box rather than the fancy gift inside. :)

I LOVE thinking about Christ -- love and peace and perfection. He came to rescue us when we were just in a mess. I hope I can do the same (well, not the SAME, but I know what I mean) for someone else.

I LOVE the music, good grief how I love the music! "Ring, Christmas Bells", "Carol of the Bells", bells bells bells, bells!

I HATE the expense, well, the wasted expense. What ever happened to "I picked up a little something that made me think of you?" We always have to over-do it.

I HATE the traveling. We are exhausted, and we didn't even go very far. I thought about sleeping in the van rather than unpacking when we got home.

I HATE the sweets everywhere I turn. Cut me some slack, Jack. I can't keep buying bigger pants!

I HATE the have-tos -- what we have to bake, give, buy, attend, and decorate. Nobody cares if we spent our savings or put 1,000 tiny lights on our house if we grumble about it and don't even enjoy it. Sheesh. Bro. Easley always said to turn those got-tos into get-tos.

Having little ones made this Christmas buckets of fun, though -- Ellie, Jack, and Woody believe in magic and they love so purely. Everything is new and exciting to them, and it really does make me remember those times. Anything seemed possible, didn't it? Well, if Jesus's mama taught us anything, it's that "Nothing is impossible with God." I'll try to remember that more this year.