Happy Happy, Merry Merry!
I was planning on sitting down and coming up with some really deliberate, meaningful, deep and inspirational post about Christmas, the Holidays and all that is Merry. But then, well – I just got too busy with all that Merry stuff and ran out of time!
You know how it goes, right? You’ve all experienced the harried and hurried Holidays, the baking and the buying. The cooking and the celebrating. All in the name of the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
No wonder we get so stressed, so cranky, so un-merry. We’re working, decorating, caring, loving, wrapping, writing, mailing…and trying to find some time to sleep in between. We’re listening to songs that tell us it’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year and watching shows that display Happy, Merry people shopping and celebrating, while big fat, fluffy snowflakes fall and a fire burns in the fireplace. And then…then we try to recreate that. We try to recreate that beautiful, quaint life that happens in a snow globe. You know, the one where people are ice skating in an outdoor rink in a small village, framed in pine trees strung with lights…all perfectly placed between two beautiful snow-capped mountains.
Oh. Wait. Was that just me doing that?
Sometimes, we set our expectations so high, too high, to recreate a pretty and perfect picture we’ve seen elsewhere, an expectation that is so impossibly high, we are bound to feel let down, feel our Christmas doesn’t measure up to their Christmas.
When really, we have to stop measuring. We have to stop imitating. We have to stop. We have to stop and appreciate our Christmas for what it is. Messy, hurried, harried. We have to appreciate our attempt at creating the picture perfect Christmas, while accepting and loving that our picture perfect Christmas can look different from those around us.
We might prefer to spend Christmas alone or we might prefer to throw a huge party. We might prefer to go to Midnight Mass or we might prefer to stay home and pray. We might prefer to get Chinese food on Christmas or make a traditional meal. Whichever way you choose to spend your Christmas, it is beautiful, because it is YOURS.
I’m working on this. Working on feeling less pressure to bake ALL of the possible Christmas cookie recipes I find on Pinterest. Working on lessening my impulsive need to craft some amazing homemade presents. Working on being satisfied with enough decorations around the house for it to feel like Christmas, even if it is less than I prefer or plan for.
Here’s the thing. I love Christmas. I absolutely love it. And I enjoy making Christmas throw up in every room in the house. But, some years (perhaps the last 11) I just can’t make it all happen. And that is okay. That is enough. Because it is still my Christmas. Our Christmas. And it is perfectly imperfect. It still makes me Happy, Happy and Merry, Merry!
So today, I focus on the Joy of the Season. I focus on Faith, Hope and Love. Today, I let my blessings fill me. I don’t compare. I don’t measure. I accept. And I smile.
Wishing each of you your own perfectly imperfect Happy, Happy, Merry Merry!
Joy to the World, the Lord has come! Let Earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing…
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