As you probably already know, our family has been on a journey to figure out how we can best celebrate Jesus during our holidays. I was remembering my post-Christmas post from last year and how we allowed our family to get carried away with everything except for Jesus during our Christmas break. We began making changes with our Easter celebration in 2009 and now we are literally forced to make changes this year for Christmas!
I am a little sad about it, but trying to get excited at the same time. Sad, because I packed all of my Christmas boxes at the bottom and back of the storage unit since I just knew we would not need them while in the farm house. Why would we? We were only going to be here for a month or two, if you remember! Even if I could get to my Christmas decorations, we have no place to put them in this house. We are crammed full with junk overflowing as it is, and the thought of bringing in more boxes to unpack and put up makes my head hurt! I did buy a small 4 ft. tree a few years ago, thinking it would be cute with kid ornaments on it. So, that is what we are using this year as our tree. When I set it up this week, the boys asked, "Where's the rest of it?" I'm glad we enacted the "1 gift under the tree" rule last year because not too many gifts will fit under it!
I was able to find a box that had our stockings and a few ornaments in it. So, where do you hang stockings when you don't have a fireplace or mantle? Ours are hanging from the entertainment center this year! 
My heart began to feel a little excitement when tried to decorate our humble tree. All we had were red balls and one ball that reads "Happy Birthday Jesus".
At first I was a little depressed looking at our bare tree and then it hit me. We have one ornament that stands out and reminds us that this is the day we set aside for Jesus. It's His birthday (or at least when we celebrate His birthday)!! It's not about us!! I know most of the other things are fun and I will miss some of it, but God laid it on our hearts last year to celebrate HIM and now He is giving us a rare opportunity to really step back from the traditional celebrations and focus our time and energy on just HIM this year!!
My heart began to feel a little excitement when tried to decorate our humble tree. All we had were red balls and one ball that reads "Happy Birthday Jesus". At first I was a little depressed looking at our bare tree and then it hit me. We have one ornament that stands out and reminds us that this is the day we set aside for Jesus. It's His birthday (or at least when we celebrate His birthday)!! It's not about us!! I know most of the other things are fun and I will miss some of it, but God laid it on our hearts last year to celebrate HIM and now He is giving us a rare opportunity to really step back from the traditional celebrations and focus our time and energy on just HIM this year!! I'm still not sure what our Christmas will look like this year, but I have a few ideas that I have gathered from some other sites. Just click on the black link to take you to the sites
1. Make a Christmas jar
3. 6 Ways Satan is Stealing Christmas by John MacArthur
5. Celebrate Advent by Focus on the Family
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
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