Traditions and Perspective.

Bee's first Christmas Cookie Creation!

"There's something about saying 'We always do this' which helps keep the years together...Tradition is a good gift intended to guard the best gifts".
- Edith Schaeffer

Christmas is almost here! I read that quote the other day in my Advent study and it gave me a new perspective on all the different holiday activities we enjoy. I vacillate between feeling guilty for loving the Christmas traditions more than the meaning sometimes, or feeling silly for over analyzing what is meant to just be fun.

She always has so much fun with her mama.

I heard my co-workers talking last week about how unprepared they feel for Christmas, and I felt like I was missing something because I really don't have anything left to do. It's so strange having no kids at home this year...so much less hustle and bustle related to all the things we HAD to do before Christmas Eve.

Such a strange season of life. But nice.

Learning new things. 

I watch my daughter be busy- juggling her new job, dear little family and a toddler with a big opinion. I see her trying to squeeze in traditions and fun and Jesus and life into a short month, and it makes me thankful for all those moments we had. All the traditions that made her love Christmas. I am thankful for the blessing of those years of "bustle" that have led to this year of less "hustle". I think I would feel a sense of loss and loneliness without those years. I might not have appreciated this phase now if I didn't remember the insanity that was before.

Thankful for an idea online to make "Blessing Bags" for the homeless this year. Bee helped fill them up.

Yesterday as I prepared the "Cookie Decorating Factory" that would be my kitchen, I kept thinking about the memorial service that was happening for dearly loved grandparents of my husband. Steve was unable to attend and needed me at home, so we spent the morning celebrating two grand lives that changed so many. I have know these people for as long as I can remember and my favorite moments were hearing Grannie Anne's stories of the traditions that made up her life. And to think Anne and Earl spent 90+ years of Christmases here, loving and caring for whoever came across their path. It made me smile. And even more, that they were bound together in life for over 50 years, and left that earthly life within a month of one another- it pushed me to keep perspective.

Bee LOVES teasing! She KNEW it was one of each item, but man, did she get a kick out of trying to slip two in!

Perspective to embrace the season I am in, right where I am. To not wish for what someone else might have, or what I think I might want of this world, but to love whatever road God has drawn in front of me. This Christmas and every day, I can keep my heart and focus on the one thing that matters.

You couldn't be around Anne and Earl and not feel their satisfaction with a life well lived. I love thinking about them and the legacy they left behind. It makes my heart hurt to think I won't see them again here, but literally OVERJOYED to know that someday- we will be together again because we have all said yes to Jesus and His saving work.

Almost complete! Just need to add the bus fare to the rescue mission,  socks and rain poncho. Thanks for helping, little one.

It will be a strange Christmas of "firsts" this year. "Firsts" without some traditions and loved ones, but also "firsts" of new traditions and love and friendship. A Christmas to celebrate the One who makes it all worth it, the One who came to make it all right.

"The people walking in the darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a LIGHT has dawned." Isaiah 9:2

A very merry tradition with my girls has begun. 

Family Traditions...

I have had Gloria Gaynor's song rolling through my head for too many days. "I will survive!" seems to be the motto of this summer. It is amazing how quickly we can settle into a new normal. The house has a new look, a new feel, and fewer inhabitants; and we have survived. We have continued on and surprisingly- enjoyed the changes.

We had the opportunity to go to the beach last weekend, and it was so funny to hear my kids reminiscing over all the things they loved about their childhood...and all the things their parents didn't do so well on. As I watched my daughter with her little family wanting to mimic all our habits and traditions, saw the look of "You are crazy" cross her husband's face, I said a little prayer for them as they figure out what is going to be their special places, their special little habits. I can only imagine how hard it is for her as she realizes that her new family isn't going to look like, ANYTHING like, the only crazy one she's ever know.

And that it's OK. She doesn't have to chop down her own Christmas tree every year. The first meal she eats in a new home doesn't have to be an Egg McMuffin the first morning. Splashing in the freezing Pacific Ocean isn't a yearly tradition for everyone and going to every Christmas production in a 50 mile radius isn't a requirement.

I realized that maybe we put too much stock in "traditions", or the making of them, over the years. I love scrapbooking and taking pictures and editing and REMEMBERING every moment. So that brought a lot of memorable activities that literally were just for the sake of my imagination. Quarterly zoo trips, pottery making, homemade pizza nights. Nothing wrong with any of it, but I hope the traditions didn't overshadow the heart. I hope that her memory of all that isn't just the activities, it's the essence of being a family- of living together, loving each other, keeping Christ as the center of it all.

I read something that grabbed me and put into one sentence what my number one goal has always been, and I pray it will someday be understood by my dear ones. The author was writing about her son leaving for college, and as she was being nostalgic, she said:

"We could make "living loved" our family tradition."

Oh, how I want to know my children have always felt that. That in our home and our hearts, the only tradition that matters is that "You are LOVED." Dearly and greatly loved. I want them to see that it's more important that their own families, as well as any person who comes into their home, walks away knowing they are loved by them, and by the One who created it all.

Watching my grown up kids meander through life, I have been reminded how different they are. My daughter has always wanted me to video and photograph every moment of her life. My son would rather I just sit alongside him quietly. When I think about all the "things" we normally do as summer winds down and fall begins, I hope I can be sensitive to them and let them find the traditions that they want to do, and let the others fade to the background.

Because more than anything, I want them to see that "living loved" was the only tradition that matters in our family.

I hope my daughter can see that more than the pictures or places she and her husband remember, living LOVED is the one thing that matters.

I hope my son can see that more than any of the activities he participates in, living LOVED is the one thing that matters.

I hope my son-in-love can see that more than "being right" or being comfortable as he leads his family along their course, living LOVED is the one thing that matters.

And I so truly hope my grandbaby, my Darling Precious, can see that more than all the people, places and adventures her family fills her world with, living LOVED is the one thing that matters.

In light of all that God has blessed us with, how could we live any other way?

"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains...
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings." 
Psalm 36:5-7