This is coming to you from my computer at my desk with "puh-ler"ed lights on my left and a small, ornament-less, sad-looking Christmas tree on my right (who am I kidding? even small, ornament-less trees can't be sad if they're Christmas trees!), whilst I listen to The Nylons, Harmony: The Christmas Songs. It's family tradition, and that's what's been on my mind recently.
With Christmas coming up, I've been thinking a lot about what I want our home to look like and what feeling I want to have this year, the first year in our own home. It's interesting, the way you merge two ideas of how Christmas should be into how your Christmas will be once you get married. Luckily, Andrew's family has a lot of the same traditions that my family did, with a few small adages that I LOVE and are easily incorporated into my ideas.
See, here's the thing. I'm not really a terribly passionate person. Not because I don't like anything, but because I love so MANY things! My sister, Becky once "labeled" me as having a passion for life. One thing I am terribly passionate about, however, is Christmas tradition. On Christmas Eve, you must watch "A Christmas Story," and/or "It's a Wonderful Life," you must stay up late (non-specific time) playing card games like Uno and Wild (not sure what the actual name is) and Go-Fish. You must wait until 7:00 AM to get your stockings (of course, if you want to set your clock about five minutes fast, that's okay, too!). Christmas breakfast MUST be served with orange juice and hot chocolate with marshmallows in it, etc. etc. Seriously, there are a lot of little details that must be met in order to satisfy.
Although I will not decorate my house for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, you better believe that it's on my mind. Unfortunately, I think it was a little-too much on my mind this year.
A couple weeks ago, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, one of the speakers in church spoke about being thankful. He spoke of an experiment showing that those who wrote what they were thankful for were happier than those who didn't, and those that said aloud what they were thankful for were even happier than those who wrote it. This thanksgiving was more stressful than trying to beat level 33 on candy crush. I felt like Andrew and I were running back and forth from home to all the activities happening around our home. I didn't make time to think about, say, or even write what I am thankful for.
So here's my list. I'm not going to go in-depth and explain every thing, but if you think about it, I'm sure you can figure out why I'm thankful for these things.
I am thankful for:
Indoor plumbing
Dishwashers
Cars
Gasoline
The train that takes the hubster to work and saves us big $$
A garage
Scissors
Hand mixers
Windows (we hardly ever turn lights on in our house to save electricity)
Music
The internet
The postal services
My religion
My mom and dad
My brothers and sisters
Babies
Beds
Trees, rocks, flowers, etc.
Hair
Pencils
My talents
The talents of others who share
Generosity
Kindness
Understanding
Movies
Life (in general, I'm glad I get to live one)
Clean water
Christmas traditions!
Kind of gets you thinking of the little things, doesn't it? Grateful people are happy people. What are you thankful for? It's never too late to give thanks.
With Christmas coming up, I've been thinking a lot about what I want our home to look like and what feeling I want to have this year, the first year in our own home. It's interesting, the way you merge two ideas of how Christmas should be into how your Christmas will be once you get married. Luckily, Andrew's family has a lot of the same traditions that my family did, with a few small adages that I LOVE and are easily incorporated into my ideas.
See, here's the thing. I'm not really a terribly passionate person. Not because I don't like anything, but because I love so MANY things! My sister, Becky once "labeled" me as having a passion for life. One thing I am terribly passionate about, however, is Christmas tradition. On Christmas Eve, you must watch "A Christmas Story," and/or "It's a Wonderful Life," you must stay up late (non-specific time) playing card games like Uno and Wild (not sure what the actual name is) and Go-Fish. You must wait until 7:00 AM to get your stockings (of course, if you want to set your clock about five minutes fast, that's okay, too!). Christmas breakfast MUST be served with orange juice and hot chocolate with marshmallows in it, etc. etc. Seriously, there are a lot of little details that must be met in order to satisfy.
Although I will not decorate my house for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, you better believe that it's on my mind. Unfortunately, I think it was a little-too much on my mind this year.
A couple weeks ago, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, one of the speakers in church spoke about being thankful. He spoke of an experiment showing that those who wrote what they were thankful for were happier than those who didn't, and those that said aloud what they were thankful for were even happier than those who wrote it. This thanksgiving was more stressful than trying to beat level 33 on candy crush. I felt like Andrew and I were running back and forth from home to all the activities happening around our home. I didn't make time to think about, say, or even write what I am thankful for.
So here's my list. I'm not going to go in-depth and explain every thing, but if you think about it, I'm sure you can figure out why I'm thankful for these things.
I am thankful for:
Indoor plumbing
Dishwashers
Cars
Gasoline
The train that takes the hubster to work and saves us big $$
A garage
Scissors
Hand mixers
Windows (we hardly ever turn lights on in our house to save electricity)
Music
The internet
The postal services
My religion
My mom and dad
My brothers and sisters
Babies
Beds
Trees, rocks, flowers, etc.
Hair
Pencils
My talents
The talents of others who share
Generosity
Kindness
Understanding
Movies
Life (in general, I'm glad I get to live one)
Clean water
Christmas traditions!
Kind of gets you thinking of the little things, doesn't it? Grateful people are happy people. What are you thankful for? It's never too late to give thanks.
Great post! Sometimes life gets in the way and it really blinds us from all the many many things that we should be thankful for. I have found that keeping a gratitude journal is the best way to keep track of all the many blessings I have in my life. Each night before bed, I just jot down a few things that I am thankful for that day or in general. We have so much to be thankful for right?!?! God is so good!
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