One Day at a Time: Trimming the Tree

I have to admit, I have been listening to Christmas music for a couple of weeks now.

(Shh, don't tell Mark.;)

He is a believer in no Christmas music or movies before Thanksgiving.

I respect that, but I feel like Christmas music puts me in the holiday mood which allows me to feel more Thanksgiving-y. (Not a word, but you get my point.)

There are just way too many amazing Christmas songs out there to only have a month to listen to them.

So I listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

However, we do not put up any Christmas decorations until after we have consumed AND digested our Thanksgiving meal. :)

Bailey decided to help us decorate this year....

She is such a diva. She will always pose for a picture. I love it.

Christmas decorating went a little differently this year. It has actually been different for the past few years. Since cancer became a part of our lives and I was so focused on living, I have not had the energy I used to. Which is good and bad....but mostly good and here's why.

I have come to realize that my life was WAY too complicated and it was complicated because I made it that way. Our past few Christmases have been more focused on the simple beauty of Christmas and what it really means. I think this year especially I have had a strong desire to help myself and my family focus our attention on the reason for the season.

The birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Usually we have "Mommy's tree" upstairs and our "family tree" downstairs. I would let the kids "help" me decorate the upstairs tree as long as they put everything where I told them because it had a theme and I had a certain place where I liked everything to be. It was a beautiful tree...but what kind of memories will my kids have of decorating the tree? How do they feel when the beautiful decorations they have made at school or church over the years are stuck downstairs on the "family tree" where no one but us gets to see them?

Ya...not happening at this house anymore.

We spent the evening decorating our Family Tree. It was so fun to hear them as they pulled ornaments out of the box and said things like,

"Oh, I remember when I made this!"

The result is something even more beautiful than my "themed tree" ever could be.

(Leave it to Emma to make a weird face during a picture. She is totally like my dad in that respect.)

I have to admit, there were some moments of frustration when parts of the tree wouldn't light up (they are still unlit but I don't care), and our daddy had to take a phone call and missed out on most of the decorating part (one of the sacrifices we make having the Bishop live in our home). We even may or may not had a few disagreements about who was going to put what decoration on the tree.

But even with a few bumps in the road, the end result is beautiful.