Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Christmas Season is Definitely Here!

What's that I heard on the news?  A possible 'winter storm' complete with snow for the city of Houston tomorrow?  We Houstonians get extremely excited about the very mention of the of snow.  And to think, this snow could fall the day before our 4th annual tradition of decorating gingerbread houses with the Alfords!  Allison and I are going to be so excited that we won't know what to do with ourselves...actually, I know exactly what we'll do: fill up on hot chocolate and coffee and talk about making some sort of feast from scratch to celebrate the occasion.



This is last year's house.  This year, Ella will have her very own gingerbread house to decorate all by herself and Christian and I will share one.  Although I have a feeling that he'll be too busy eating candy to actually put it on the house!

Yes, the Christmas season is in full swing at the Campbell house.  The kid's got their Christmas portrait taken (don't worry, grandmas, you'll get your pictures!), I'm halfway finished with my Christmas cards, and I'm halfway finished with my Christmas shopping.  For the first time ever I actually feel on top of things this season!  Mom, Ella and I have our tickets booked for the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker and I'm looking forward to joining the Alford's on their yearly tradition of going to Santa's Wonderland (it's one of those drive-thru Christmas light displays complete with a wintery village!).

Besides all the holiday fun stuff, I've had an overwhelming sense of peace and joy this year that I haven't felt in a long time.  God has been so good and so faithful and instead of just focusing on the material aspects of Christmas, my heart has been focused instead on the Christ of Christmas.  I know this is God's doing because it is not my nature to keep my eyes on Him!  Every day this week I've been reminded of how much God loves me.  Even the daunting task of writing dozens of Christmas cards has been a blessing as I prayed that each person receiving a sending would feel God's love and peace this year.  Even my kids seem to have the Christmas spirit - Both kids have loved watching our VeggieTales Christmas DVD's and through the fun of those shows, the real message of Christmas shines through.  Yesterday, Ella said she wanted to read the "real" Christmas story about Jesus instead of a Santa story (don't get me wrong, we love jolly ol' St. Nick and we look forward to his coming, but he's not the focus of our holiday).  I've even caught her singing praise songs throughout the day. 

When I reflect on all these things, I can truely say that I already got what I want for Christmas :o)

1 comment:

Adventures of a Rushing Wife said...

that is really sweet! I wish I could be there for all of the festivities! I will be there in less than a week though!