Since both of our sons have homes of their own and our family will will be celebrating on Christmas at my sister in law's house again this year; there's no reason to decorate except that we want to.
Actually the decorating initiative is thanks to my wife. She is the one with the goal of having our house decorated, inside and out, for the holiday season. I've caught the decorating fever from her. It's not that I don't enjoy having the calm and festive atmosphere that comes with having our "halls decked".
I love sitting in the living room at night during the holiday season watching TV in just the aura of the Christmas tree. I am warmed by looking at the Nativity scene , snow globes, music boxes arranged around the living room like old friends in from out of town for their annual visit. I like all of that. I'm just not a fan of the process of getting it that way.
I can't explain it. I just don't like getting everything down from upstairs, unpacking it and putting it in it's place. It's tough for me to take that first step off into the world of decorating. I have to be pushed. But once I'm off the cliff I spread my wings and fly. Someone else has to say that they want the house decorated that's what gets me started. That having been already accomplished, our decorating has begun.
In addition to the things I've already mentioned our decorations also include plush versions of characters from the popular TV specials, and other Christmas mementos that mean a lot to me. Several are a direct connection to the my family, especially my parents.
This Christmas there's a new decoration that will serve as a reminder of this special Christmas season and the changes that have happened this past year. It's a Thomas Piccone (pronounced "Pick Coney") music box. One was given to all the workers by Shop NBC, the company I work for, as a "thank you" for a productive 2009. A very nice gesture and top notch as far as music boxes go.
I've uploaded a short video at the bottom of this post. It's not professional video by any means. It's just to give you the idea of what the music box is like. It will provide an additional element to the whole "relaxing in the living room" scenario I mentioned earlier.
As time goes by and our lives improve I can see us becoming involved with life again. To be honest the reason we haven't decorated these past few years is because we didn't have the energy.
Over the past few months we've been able to change, arrange, and maintain our home closer to the ideal way we want it to be without it exhausting us. We'll never be asked to appear in "Good House Keeping" or "Home Beautiful". It's still a work in progress but it's getting better.
This gives us a little more confidence in ourselves and in our home. Decorating for Christmas will only increase that confidence. This may very well lead us to begin doing what we've felt led by God to do for a while now. Open up our home with the confidence and hospitality as a means of building relationships and ministering to Christian friends. That's a goal for 2010.
A big part of that is the return of Christmas.
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