Refocus

This morning I finally started tackling my Christmas card list. Most years I find or take some cute holiday pictures of my kids, compose a quirky note, and print off photo cards to send to the many family and friends all over who we may not get to see often but catch up with each holiday season. This year has been a little different: thanks to a glitch at the place we had the girls' photos taken a few weeks ago we ended up with double our original order. Since we will never need this many pictures I decided to buy regular cards and insert the pictures we already have.

This all seemed good in theory, but it has put me in somewhat of a Christmas card funk. No matter how hard I tried, the letter I wrote to put in the cards was dull, and my heart was not in any of the cards I put together. Finally after about 10 or so I stopped altogether. I don't know what it is, if the cards aren't personal enough, festive enough, or what, but it seems my slump is not just pertaining to cards either. I have several gifts yet to purchase, preparations to be made for parties... and I'm not especially excited about any of it.

I had an epiphany a few hours ago: I remember scoffing at all of the people who race around Black Friday weekend to get all of their shopping done, or those who do Christmas shopping months in advance. But now I see the beauty of such an idea: if I get all of the shopping and prepping done and out of the way, I can once again refocus my energies on the real spirit of Christmas: celebrating Christ's birth and sharing that joy with my loved ones. Unfortunately, it's not feasible to just go get all of my shopping done at once (I do have a kid or two or three with me at all times). But I am getting myself organized to have it all done by this weekend. Then I can stop stressing about the unimportant aspects of the season and start enjoying what really matters. Before bedtime this evening, the girls asked me to push the button on one of our ornaments. We have a Charlie Brown Christmas ornament that is Linus on stage, and when the button is pushed he recites the part from the movie with the Nativity story, ending with "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." I don't know why, but every time we listen to that ornament play, Molly comes over to me and holds my hand. Sharing moments like that with my family - that is most certainly what Christmas should be all about.