Ditchin' the Crazy

This Christmas season is going to be different.  And this time I mean it.

For years now I have found the holiday season to be my least favorite, pretty much excruciatingly stressful time of year.  I love my Jesus, and I am so grateful to Him for the way He gave everything up just for me...My discomfort in December certainly has nothing at all to do with the Christ Child.  I just find December to be so very noisy and demanding. 

I've tried to ignore all the noise and and pressure crushing in on me each year and longed to simply bask in the precious warmth of love and gratitude... but I have never been able to actually pull it off. 

I've always shared with my friends that my favorite part of the entire holiday season is Christmas night....when it's all over.  That's when I would do my personal happy dance for surviving another year :)

My children are adults who understand my limitations, and my friends expect nothing from me other than the love I can give them.  So, as that familiar knot begins to build in my stomach and my mind begins to race and strategize- -

 I have decided not to play.

That's right, doggone it.  This year I refuse to engage in the frenzy or the crazy. 

This year I am keeping it slow, simple, peaceful. 

I will not try to figure out how to buy things I obviously have no budget to buy...and I will not feel guilty because I can't. 

I will give my family and my friends my heart...and I will truly believe that to be, not just enough, but everything. 

I will focus on Christmas music that is all about Jesus and not about chestnuts roasting or hand-holding :)

I will decorate less, cook less, bake less.

I will mute! the tv commercials that make me feel frantic and anxious.  Better yet, maybe I'll turn the television off altogether!

I will participate in Advent each day this month, keeping my focus on Jesus, the Christ Child, and all He means to me.

I will ask my Father to help me to be Jesus with skin on to someone who needs Him desperately this December.

....and I will rejoice and find joy.

Wanna come with?

Happy Thursday :)
Renee