the Christmas season

Christmas is fast approaching!

I love this time of year.  The time when our Elf on the Shelf - Elf George - comes back from the North Pole to keep an eye on the girls behavior and report it back to Santa each night.  The girls love looking for George each morning to see where he's landed after returning to our home. It's beyond precious to watch them squeal in delight when they find him - often he's doing something cute or naughty. 

Elf George in my fridge!? Naughty elf!

It's the time of year when I paint a piece for my Christmas village.  I have a piece for every year Michael and I have been married.

A picture of just a small portion of my village.

I love the glow of the Christmas lights while watching Christmas favorites like A Christmas Story or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. 

I love gift giving.  It's that time of year where we give gifts in honor of the ultimate gift that was given to us - Jesus.

Toward that end, we don't buy an amazing amount of gifts for the kids to open on Christmas morning.  The girls get one gift that will be open and under the tree from Santa - our nod to St. Nick - and then they get three other gifts (wrapped, of course).  I figure, baby Jesus got three gifts on His birthday, and since three gifts were good enough for God on this special occasion then three should be good enough for Beth and Hannah!  Lastly though, we do fill the stockings with some other goodies. 

Oh, I forgot! Christmas Eve, they do get new PJs from Elf George. ;-)

It's simple. I like to keep Christmas simple.  He is the reason for the season.

I know this time of year can be especially hard for some.  To those, my prayers go out to you and yours.

Let's all try to keep Christmas simple this year and strive to remember why we - as Christians - celebrate this holiday.

Today's forget-me-not: Luke 2 ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

from Women Living Well on Facebook