This has been a more challenging “season” of my life, these last couple of months. My daddy died very suddenly in a motorcycle accident on October 17. (johnwilliambeach.com) My dad was so full of life and energy. This all came as an unwelcome shock and yet the knowledge that he is in bliss with Jesus trumps any selfish sorrow I feel. Not to say that I am not still grieving, but I have been blessed with a more eternal focus than ever before.
The blow has yielded some other good responses. My escapist behaviors have been relatively positive ones; I have been spending quite a bit of time digital scrapbooking and decorating for Christmas. I have an insatiable need for color, smiles, glitter & joy.
Operation Occupy Christmas is in full swing
Forget this “Occupy x-city”… How ’bout we Occupy Christmas!? About a week before Thanksgiving we dragged all of our Christmas stuff down from the attic. I wasn’t in the mood for our boring green fake tree that failed to make my ornaments “pop” so we went
with our 5′ white Dollar General find and our 7′ silver beauty from Garden Ridge. In the center is a red sequence cone, no doubt a 75% off After-Christmas score from Target which is when and where all my favorite decorations come from. A 3′ white and an 18″ silver completes the forest. My favorite part of the whole display is the blanket of snow. We added a little fencing to keep the dogs from playing (and peeing) in the “snow.” Off to the right is our stained-glass & wire snowman that we bought at Sam’s 9 years ago. On the mantle is a Mexican tin nativity that I purchased at a sample sale at Dallas Market Hall many, many years ago – maybe 20 years. Unfortunately it’s missing a wise man and a shepherd but I wasn’t very nativity savvy when I purchased it and I never even noticed. I still love it.
The stockings are another Target purchase but the cool thing about these is that I bought them when there were only three of us with one on the way… and something told me to go ahead and purchase five of them, just in case we one day had another baby. Little did I know that we would be surprised with our Gracie when Ella was just 21 months old. God is good! 
The “Christmas Mornings” over the mantle is a new addition. It features the last 5 years of our traditional PJ pics. I think it turned out so wonderful. I love seeing all the changes in our family over the years.
Our family is committed to focusing on the TRUE reason for the season this year. It’s so easy to get sucked into all the junk… like Christ isn’t enough already! We are doing the Youversion Rediscovering Chrstmas Season daily readings and I’m so excited! I’ve gotten a little ahead so I can be ready for discussions with the kids and maybe even some extra add-ons that will help us really dig deep this Christmas. We are also adopting a family for Christmas and are focusing on shopping for them, rather than ourselves. This has really made us excited! We are just feeling so blessed all over.
I am sad to be entering into the holiday season knowing that I will not get to see my dad’s smiling face. But knowing that this earth is fleeting and time is short and one day we will all be united again just makes Jesus’ entrance into the world that much more special. Merry Christmas!