Finding Christmas

Most years Christmas comes in quickly with it's smells of cinnamon, glowing lights, Santa suits, ringing bells and falling snow (not to mention the Christmas Decor going up before Wyatt can say Trick or Treat). This year it has seemed like Christmas kept eluding me. I could see that the spirit of Christmas was about, floating above each beautifully lit home, but for some reason it felt as if I was only a spectator of the much anticipated event. This was disappointing for me because Christmas is my favorite holiday. Desperately I began concocting ways to "catch" the Christmas spirit. I had begun recording and watching Christmas movies off ABC Family and the Hallmark channel like a seasoned DVR pro. Sounds of Noel, Rudolph and Joly Ole St. Nick began to fill our home and my car. I began burning candles of the smells of the holidays. Still to my chagrin and utter disbelief the Grinch was the only one residing here. I felt as if I was upon my own hilltop looking down on Who ville jealously watching the happenings of Christmas going on without me. You know the part in the end when he gets stumped and can't figure out why everyone was so darn happy and singing none the less, well I think I had one of those moments myself. I was not doing any of the right things to bring in the spirit of Christmas. Sadly I must admit I think I had left the most important part out. Those are all of the things I enjoy doing at Christmas, but not my favorite parts only icing on top of the cake. I had yet to do one family oriented activity. I had forgotten that the feeling of Christmas does not come from all the glitter, hustle and bustle, but from the love we feel for our friends and family and most of all our Savior, Jesus Christ. Determined to fix that and realizing that the one thing I was missing to start off my Christmas right was the family Christmas tree outing. We always get our tree the day after Thanksgiving and this year we postponed it because my mom was gone. (She ended up getting an artificial tree, but that's a whole other blog). The minute we hit the road on our way up the winding mountain I instantly began to feel as if Christmas may still come to 6 Napias Street. Jason was a trooper. He didn't grumble once even though I kept yelling STOP that's the one and then I would come back and say it was defective on one side. It was an awesome day even though I had forgotten to bring the can opener to open the chili and we had to smash it against a rock and pry it open with a window scraper. Nothing was going to ruin that day for me. So, the point to my long winded story. I did find Christmas, atop a snowy mountain surrounded by people I love eating chili and drinking cocoa. To quote Dr. Seuss "It came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages boxes or bags. Christmas can't be bought from a store. Maybe Christmas means a little bit more." That night, Wyatt put on his Santa hat and played my little elf and called me Mrs. Claus and Dad Santa (who was sleeping on the couch might I add). Come to find out after we got it home my tree was a little skimpy on one side, but with a little love from Wyatt and me, our Charlie Brown tree gave us the chance to find Christmas.