Feeling the Season…

I don’t know if it’s been the lingering effects of the world shut-down due to Covid, or that we moved to a place where snow is just not a thing, but the last few years I have not much felt “in the spirit” when the end-of-year holiday season came along.

This year feels different.

Kenzie and I did our annual visit to the Peppermint Forest a little early this year. We went the second week of October. It’s an outdoor furniture store 9’ish months out of the year and then in early October it becomes a winter wonderland.

They set up a bunch of beautiful trees with themes. Sometimes color is the theme, sometimes it’s birds, or old time Christmas, or ballerinas. And then under each themed tree sits baskets of the ornaments they used to decorate so if you see one you just have to have, it’s easy to grab one.

Kenzie and I have a tradition now of going and each picking one ornament for our tree and then I pick one additional for my annual ornament party. We found some really great ones this year!

A few weeks ago my husband had surgery. Which means no lifting for a while. I’m so thankful Mel and Jeff moved down this year (for a million reasons, this is just a bonus reason). Jeff was able to help me pull our Christmas decor down last week when we returned from the Biltmore. I am so thankful.

Bringing it out early prompted me to want to set things up a little early. I have always held the die-hard tradition that my mother began of setting up Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. That way each holiday has it’s time to shine. But this year felt a little different. I wanted the warmth of the lights, the comfort of the memories of all my Christmas’s past to surround me.

And you know who was even more excited about this change than I was? Kenzie.

My girl love Christmas. It’s her very favorite holiday of them all. She is super excited to see the house come together.

We tried something a little different with our ribbon this year. I was inspired by our trip to both the Peppermint Forest and the Biltmore. We bought this amazing gray/lavender velvet ribbon and a few rolls of white suede/velvet as well and made a waterfall of bubble-like ribbon to cascade down the tree.

We really love how it turned out.

Today we will add our ornaments and I will feel nostalgic for the amazing Christmas’s I experienced because of my mother and her planning in my childhood. I am so happy I carried so many of her traditions into my own family. Those Christmas’s were magical to me, still are, all these years later.

Speaking of nostalgia. I was needing a little comfort food the other day and my first thought was to make my mom’s Mac & Cheese. The old fashioned way. I hadn’t experienced a box-version of it until I was well into my teens. I thought making M&C always took an hour or more and the richness of the flavors stayed on the tongue almost as long.

It was as good as I remembered. So worth the roux and time.

I’m also excited that we will begin studying Hebrews this week at Church. I love that our pastor(s) teach right from the Word. Hebrews speaks to who Christ is in a very direct way that I appreciate. As I’ve started rereading it myself, it has been an amazing reminder of how awesome He is. And I don’t mean “awesome” like 80’s slang, I mean AWESOME. Over everything. That there isn’t one thing not touched or created through Him. And it reminds me to reach out to my friends, and those that I love, and that we are to remind each other and encourage each other daily of who He is and who we are in Him.

And that He is the reason for this season.

And maybe that’s why I’m feeling so much more “in the spirit” this year. Because after a time of feeling a little distant, a little disconnected from Him, I once again have “come home” and I feel enveloped by the Spirit – welcomed back so to speak – as I always am.

And for that, I am especially thankful.