Merry Christmas

It is Christmas!  Can you believe how fast Christmas came!? I feel like we went from carving pumpkins and scaring people; to buying gifts and singing Christmas carols around the fire within a week. Even though this whole year has dragged on and on and on- Christmas season just ran all of the red lights and arrived super punctual! 

Do you and your family have any specials traditions that you do around the holidays? Do you decorate cookies, build gingerbread houses, decorate your Christmas tree in your pj’s or wear matching pajamas on Christmas Morning together? 

Growing up- my Dad was huge on Christmas. He LOVED it! Having the whole family together, laughing, spending intentional time was his favorite thing in the whole world. I can remember every Christmas Eve he would make sure we had a big dinner, and then eat some cookies for desert and make sure to set out the yummiest looking ones for Santa with a big glass of cold milk. He even left out a plate of carrots for the reindeer- boy did they LOVE THOSE! Santa always seemed to make a mess though- crumbs everywhere. Silly Santa! Once we were in bed, Santa always shimmied down the chimney and left stockings full of treats, the tree completely surrounded by gifts, a sweet hand written note thanking us for the cookies and carrots. Waking up on Christmas morning was magical to my brother and I. It was always so exciting and something we looked forward to every year. For us though, it wasn’t the gifts it was the pure joy we saw on my dads face every year that made it the most precious holiday memory now. 

The smell of fresh hot cinnamon rolls, coffee, bacon filled the house on Christmas morning. We would usually wake up before our parents and the rule was that we couldn’t wake them up unless it was after 8 am. 8:01 am was when the magic began- the aromas of the holidays, the smiles, the carols, and the race to get the cinnamon roll with most frosting! 

Oh do I miss those days. The days when my whole family was sitting around the Christmas tree together. Christmas was never the same for my family after my dad died. It was his holiday. Christmas became a day of mourning for us. We mourned the joy, because he was our holiday joy. My dad made it what it was. 

Flash forward to now. I am married to the love of my life and we have two beautiful babies. The holidays as a mom are very different. I feel as if I have a reason again to celebrate and spread joy. This year Jackie and I decided that our traditions for Christmas will be cutting down our own tree, decorating gingerbread houses, doing Christmas crafts and spending so much intentional family time together. The gifts don’t matter. The time is what we can never get back and we want as much as possible. 

This year we have all been through more than we can imagine. It was a hard year for so many people. The one thing this year did provide us with was time. We all had time to truly enjoy our lives, the people we have and everything we are lucky to have. Even though we did have a lot of separation from others it made us all realize how precious life was. How precious our time truly is. We learned what was important in our lives. Joy, time, grace, love, patience, health, family. Those are the things the matter most. Not eating out, shopping, or seeing movies. It’s the time that runs out far to quickly. 

My wish to you all this Christmas is that you get your time. You enjoy your time. You cherish your time. Be joyful. Be happy. Spread cheer. 

Merry Christmas! 

From mine to yours.

Love, The Olson’s. 🎄