It's not Christmas...yet...

Last week, a friend said to me, "I bet YOUR house is decked out for Christmas!"  On the contrary...I have 2 ornaments hanging in the doorway of my kitchen...a strange yellow satin ornament with dangling pearls that I found at the thrift store, you can tell someone lovingly crafted it, and a homemade Christmas card ball that I made out of the last 3-4 years' cards.  I hadn't made one since I was in the 3rd grade...it's imperfect, and that bothers me...but it's OK!

The fact is, we celebrate Advent and don't begin celebrating Christmas until it arrives.  But we party for weeks into January!  Before I converted to Catholicism, I had begun to despise Christmas.  It didn't mean anything to me but stress, overeating...and STUFF.   Now, I like stuff...my current Amazon wish list proves that, but the holiday still didn't mean anything to me and I'm a person who needs things to have deep roots.  I like to go back to the beginning and Christmas is rooted in the birth of Christ.  And that's a fact.

I'm subduing my excitement for decorations, baking, crafts...and while the rest of the world's enthusiasm dies on December 26th and they pitch their dead Scotch pine onto the curb (we already found a free tree so I won't need to snag it!) I'll just be decorating mine.  I'll be just starting to think about Christmas cards, and wrapping the porch with lights, and digging out the handmade stockings I actually finished last year...and baking shortbread cookies with sprouted wheat flour, Kerry Gold butter and unrefined sucanat!!! 

Our family already made the yearly pilgrimage to Crown Center during Rose Sunday...Halls had their ornament store in full swing, surprised they weren't already on sale like everyone else's Christmas stuff...they have to make room for Easter, ya know!   

Another *good* thing is...my kids are already processing the flu for the year, so that means they won't be sick during Christmas.  Hopefully my kefir and sauerkraut will keep the flu away from me completely, but Miso was sick for 24 hours and is completely well, and Tank's journey began early this morning and his fever is already coming down and he was extremely interested in his dinosaur book this afternoon, pointing and gurgling at them. We'll see them through and out of the woods...built up that immunity, baby...we're going to be at a lot of parties soon!