TRANSFORMED, from broken to beautiful
Since I typed the last word and hit publish on my Write 31 Days series in October life has been a whirlwind, and I haven’t been back once to work on another blog post. Why? Number one, writing for 31 days straight was exhausting and a lot more demanding than I thought it would be. Number 2, November was a month of hosting friends and family in our home which meant a lot of local sightseeing, including trips to the beach and the mountains.
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A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post entitled, When Your Stager Nixes Christmas, in which I shared last year’s Christmas decor and talked about the fact that our home stager asked us not to put up any holiday decorations while our home was on the market. I think many of you thought I was complaining but I wasn’t. Not at all.
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Do you want to be the favorite guest at all the holiday parties you attend this year, AND assure that your name stays on the party list for years to come? BRING. FOOD. Not just any ol’ food mind you, but my very favorite treat to make at Christmas.
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Is it really? Or is it the loneliest time of the year? Or the saddest? Or the unhappiest? Christmases come and go and there have been years when there wasn’t enough money to buy the gifts that I wanted to buy. There was the year of the family home broken beyond repair. There were the years of loved ones recently passed and the years of estrangement from extended family who had once been close.
Stuff happens to change the dynamic of Christmas and can crush the idealistic dream of what it should be. I’ve been through a lot of changes in my life and, though I don’t really like change, I’ve learned that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
This year, for hubby and I, it is the first Christmas EVER that we won’t have any family with us over the holidays. Is that sad? Yes. Is it something to mourn and grow depressed over? Absolutely not!
I am thankful that I HAVE a husband to spend the day with. We will cook a good meal, watch old Christmas movies, and maybe go out in search of beautiful Christmas lights at night.
I am thankful that I have my family to love, and who love me in return, no matter how far away we will be from one another this Christmas.
I am thankful that instead of spending a lot of money on gifts for each other this year our family made the joint decision to bless others who are in need this Christmas.
I am thankful to have made new friends in this community, so far away from where we used to live. Enough new friends to have in for a Christmas With The Kranks Party the day after Christmas.
I am abundantly blessed (which in the Bible is the word makarios or a self contained happiness – happiness independent of circumstances) at this time in my life, but in my happy state I don’t mean to overlook or minimize anything you might be going through this year. Believe me, I feel for hurting hearts and I do understand the feeling of being so low that I thought I would never rise again.
All I have to offer you are the words, “I care about what you are going through.”
But God . . . He has much more to offer you in His Words. So here are some Scriptures that I hope will uplift you this Christmas season and bring to you the hope needed to push through to the change that is ahead. Because things do change, and when you are at the lowest of lows it is most times for the better!
My prayer for you this Christmas is that, not matter what your outward circumstances, you will find joy in the celebration of our Savior’s birth. One of my friends said, let your presence be your present. God longs for your presence and for you to draw near to Him so He can meet every need of your heart.
I myself will be taking some time away from writing to enjoy the Season to the fullest but I look forward to “new things” to come for all of us in the New Year.
Abundant blessings to you dear, dear readers,
All photos taken in Boston, Massachusetts.
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, NiftyThriftyThings, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, Sunday Stillness
Sometimes I think about how much fun it would be to have a tree with ornaments all of one color, or a tree with only one type of ornament. I think about what it would be like to have a very formal tree, or maybe a woodland tree, or a tree filled with nothing but vintage ornaments. Every year though, as I hang my ornaments, I realize that our tree is the most beautiful tree in the world!
Ours is a tree filled with ornaments collected over the years of our marriage and reflects the history of our little family. The ornaments on my tree remind me of the various seasons of my family’s life, hard times, fun times, stressful times, crazy busy times, times when my family members made me feel so proud that I thought I would burst, and times that were filled with love . . . no matter what.
Now that the girls are long grown, and living far, far away, decorating my tree has become even more precious to me as each ornament placed holds a special memory. Yesterday’s post shares one of those memories along with a Bird-in-a Teacup ornament tutorial. Today I want to share with you why my tree is The Most Beautiful Tree in The World.
Not every ornament on my tree is fancy. Many are hand made and even rather rustic. But they are holders of our history . . . like the years that we did community theater together as a family.
Especially the Christmas musicals that made our holidays a bit more stressful but oh, so FULL.
Our tree has some special ornaments on it, like the Thomas Kincaid houses . . .
. . . that my mom gave us as a gift.
Our tree has ornaments from places we’ve vacationed . . .
. . . and places where family members live.
It has ornaments from our former home state . . .
. . . and a favorite University (Go Huskies)!
An ornament that reminds me that we have a wee bit ‘o the Irish in our heritage.
An angel ornament from a family wedding.
This one reminds me of our time living in the Lake House and hubby’s intention to catch more fish!
These two were made to reflect a hobby we share and hope to continue in the warmer waters of the Southeast.
Here is the gift of a nest left on our front door by a very brave bird (filled with one of my velvet pumpkins because who doesn’t have velvet pumpkins hanging on their Christmas trees?).
This is one of a set of ten faux crystal ornaments that I bought when we couldn’t really afford them but they were on sale after Christmas and I wanted their sparkle on my tree . . . still do.
This is a vintage Santa whose face I adore . . .
. . . and vintage cardboard ornaments that somehow remind me of childhood.
We have a whole set of small dolls that adorn our tree because that is the kind of ornament that every little girl loves. They are a bit shabby now from those little girl fingers. I don’t mind.
Something new was added to the tree this year, glittered peacock feathers to match the colors in my living room.
There is more, so much more, that I haven’t shown you but I think you get the idea. By now you know why I will never be able to have a designer Christmas tree in my living room. How could I even think of it when I already have The Most Beautiful Tree in the World? Or is it? A reader recently commented to me that the most beautiful tree in the world is really the one that Jesus hung upon to save a dying world from sin. Wow! This profound truth is one I hope we will all consider during this season of His birth.
My hope for you is that you will find joy in what you already have. It is SO much better than chasing after something you think you need!
Blessings dear friends,
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, NiftyThriftyThings, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, Sunday Stillness
