extravagant gift of love

Now that December is here, I am ready to go "Christmas". I have resolved to enjoy the month and not let it slip by. Last year, I remember looking back over the season and telling Mitch, "I want a do-over". Then, I was trying to remember why it came and went so fast - so I looked back over old blog posts.....

OHHHHH, re-doing the kids' bedrooms right before Christmas contributed to the stress. Then all the 'normal' holiday school and church activities. Then preparing for our annual Holiday Open House (which will not be annual this year, but I get ahead of myself). The Open House invites/Christmas cards. Oh, and I was working. We were busy. Which never changes but my resolve can, right?

So this year I am intentionally s-l-o-w-i-n-g the month down. I'm not working. We are not in the middle of major home re-decoration. I am NOT hosting an open house- which means no deadline for the baking and no mandatory cleaning. (which is sad but happy at the same time) And get this. I am NOT sending out Christmas cards or writing a holiday letter. We are not in charge of holiday youth events. We have a pretty full week next week - traveling from one end of our state to the other, literally. But after that, it's just the normal church and school activities until it's time to head out to family's.

But more than cutting down on activities, I'm going to live in the moment. The glorious, Christmas holiday moment. It's easy to do when I look past all the temporary extravagance (that I LOVE) and look at the extravagant Act of Love that was poured out so many years ago. I am going to relish the one time, the world actually makes it easy to remember that Gift. All the lights, the pomp , the hoopla. For me, it all points to Him. To Jesus. The extravagant gift of love.