Thoughts around Christmas...

You know how it is, the Christmas checklist: get the tree, decorate, put on Christmasy music, send cards, buy presents, wrap presents, make Christmas goodies, give away Christmas goodies, buy forgotten gifts, go to the various advent services at church, etc. The list only grows. For us this Christmas season has forced us to limit the list. Of course, the addition of another little Peters makes such limitations necessary.


However, our home has not been void of the joys and bustling of Christmas. We have all kept busy, but it's a good busy. The type of busy that forces us to be together in the busyness, working through struggles, celebrating success, laughing over little things, bickering about job delegation, singing carols together, praying together...In a matter of speaking, we've been celebrating this holiday season in the closeness of our little family. Perhaps this makes absolutely no sense to you, but in my memory it is much easier to focus on the gifts, the going here and there, the making of this and munching of that. But to do that all and celebrate our Lord's coming with our little crew has provided blessings abundant.
The joys of the season have been peppered with the struggles of family life, but the Lord has been good to reveal himself to us through it all. One of the easiest ways for Matthew and I to see it is when we simply look upon the faces of our children and see their smiles (even after a difficult day).
So, I wanted to share some of those smiles with you in hopes that maybe the joy of this season will warm you.