It's beginning to look a lot like CHAOS

Goodbye Pumpkin Spice Latte, Hello Peppermint Mocha. It's Christmas time again. But I am finding myself feeling a little Scrooge-y. It's not that I don't like the Christmas season. I do. But it takes a lot of effort on the front end for it to be "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" around here. And you know how I feel about effort.

I'm a strict "no decorating or Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving" kind of girl. But the way things are going I'm also a "probably not going to have the house decorated until December 23rd" kind of girl too. In addition to decorating, I have heaps of laundry all over the dining room floor and littering the upstairs hallway that need to be attended to. Not my idea of festive. Complicating matters, there's this baby in the house. It's hard to get things done when she's awake because a) She's into everything. b) Attachment is going well and she gets in "please don't let go of me" moods. I oblige her, of course. And c) I just want to BE with her.

But we are in process. Emmie clearly wasn't feeling scrooge-y. Here she stands in the middle of the mess in all her Christmas glory...
One of my favorite parts of the process is seeing the kids excitement over seeing our Christmas book collection again...
And the Little People Nativity...
Wait a minute, who invited Santa? I loved hearing Jack yell, "Oh, I so call Jesus!" as they unpacked it. I didn't so much love Tate having a smack down between the camel and baby Jesus. At least Jesus rightly won. I guess you should expect such things when you make the Holy Family into little plastic toys.

Nor did I love when I saw Bill walking upstairs with our tree. I don't like our tree. At all. It is a mangy eyesore. Even positive Emmie said "You know, our Christmas tree really is gnarly." Every year I complain about how much I hate it. And every year Bill insists we don't need a new tree. As we were bantering about this back and forth yet again, Tate (who was quietly reading in the corner) called out with that little glint in his eye, "Isn't this all supposed to be about Jesus?" Okay you got me, kid.

It's supposed to be about Jesus. But, often that's not the way it is for me. Not that it's wrong to have a beautiful Christmas tree. I truly hope to have a new one when I write this post next year (day after Christmas sales, babe, seriously). But it's an issue of focus. Oftentimes my focus is on decorating the house, getting the perfect Christmas card picture, packing the schedule with fun holiday activities and meaningful traditions and shopping, shopping, shopping. Again, not bad things, just not what I want to consume me in the weeks ahead. Especially since I end up drained and exhausted rather than peaceful and reverent.

I hope this year that I can simply enjoy the One who came to save me. Much like the way I set aside the laundry and decorating to enjoy the baby in our home. I hope this year I will just want to BE with Him. Maybe I'll start right now.