tis the season.....for new things

Here we are heading into the big Christmas push.

I have to admit that after Thanksgiving, it was at the top of my "to-be-dreaded" list.

In my perfect hindsight it is clear that my judgment, feelings and general experience were seriously affected in November by several factors.

1. first big family holiday since Tyler moved....everything this first year is going to have a little/lot of sting in it.

2. still recovering from knee surgery....couldn't really exercise well other than doing PT stuff with leg weights. I need strong cardio like air. Makes all the difference in the world to me.

3. still in chronic pain from shoulder problems and since I stopped the pain meds from knee surgery...HELLOOOO....it hurts??!! (miss grumpy pants)

4. still didn't know what the doc was going to do to fix the shoulder. I just LOVE the great unknown. I just want to snuggle up to it and be besties 4-ever.

5. I couldn't get over feeling guilty about "celebrating" things with only half our family.

That is just a sampler but I think I'm painting the picture.

So, what do we do about Christmas? It was hard to think about but I knew at least one thing. I wanted to make it about family and about Christ.

I made cards
I made cookies
We had friends over for cookies and cocoa
We took teenagers to see Christmas lights
I'm making a gingerbread house
We have read the scriptures
We have prayed together
We watched the annual Christmas fireside together
We've watched the movies together
We set up the nativity whilst I played some carols
I hung up the wreath
We have planned an epic family adventure to celebrate with family

Tomorrow night we will be taking the gingerbread house over to the boys' house along with other treats and presents, movies and sweets. They will be happily surprised with intermittent goodies every other day while we are out of town.