Christmas Countdown: Anticipation

Today Sam commented that he hopes the days till Christmas will go by REALLY fast so that Christmas will be here!!  I am just the opposite.  I love to take my time, enjoy the whole season, not rush it . . . the anticipation is a big part of the whole, for me.  (Of course, when I was a kid I probably didn't feel this way. :))

I have been working hard this week on getting up early, at least an hour or more before the kids do, so I can savor that quiet time in the morning with a cup of coffee (can you believe I actually like coffee now??!) and my Bible study.  I am loving doing the GMG Advent study again, as well as reading the short devotionals in Good News of Great Joy by John Piper.  (This ebook is available for free as a PDF or for Kindle and other e-readers.)  Now that we have the Christmas tree up, I love having my quiet time by the lights of the tree.  (I will hopefully be sharing more pics from our decorating tomorrow!)

We try to keep our Christmas season fairly simple and unhurried, but I do have a short list of traditions that we usually do each year--things like baking sugar cookies with the kids, setting up the manger scene, doing a Jesse tree, etc.  We are also thinking about going to a Christmas parade, driving around to look at lights, and of course watching our favorite movies like "It's a Wonderful Life."  Doing all these things over the course of the month instead of trying to cram them all into the week before Christmas helps me slow down the season and keep the anticipation going.  Hopefully one day our kids will grasp that for themselves.  For now, I just try to gently remind them that we can enjoy the whole month and that will make Christmas seem to last longer. :)