This is NOT Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here...

I love a lot of things, but I really love Christmas.

This year, Emma Claire is starting to "get" Christmas.  Unsure if she would remember last year's,
{since we were in the whirlwind of moving halfway across the country and I can't even remember a whole lot of last year's since I was picturing rodeos and cowboys most of Christmas week}
I set out to "show her" Christmas this year.

We had just pulled out our decorations from the garage and she and I were happily decorating in the Living Room.  She's my interior designer in crime.  Our tree was up and the stockings were hung.  I said, "Emma Claire!  This is Christmas!" with a spread of my arms across the room.

Anyone else getting a sinking feeling in their stomachs about now?

This is NOT Christmas.

As soon as those words came out of my mouth, I knew I needed a heart readjustment.  

We use symbolism, I know, to have meaning for our Christmas trees and our candy canes and our Christ-filled Christmas cards.  And yes.  We use good excuses to explain away the most harried and busiest time of year for Americans...Christians and non Christians alike.  

And yes.  We do have good reason - the BEST reason - to celebrate.

But this.

The decorating, the holiday dresses, the parades, the gifts, the traveling out of town, the stress, the food, the people pleasing.

It is not Christmas.

I was so mortified that I had gotten sucked in.  Sucked in so much that I was making my 3 year old think that this shallow and warped view of the holidays was Christmas.

I am not trying to be dramatic here people.  Warped views of the birth of our Savior are serious.

I got out our little children's bible and turned to the New Testament where Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel.  And I read it to my girls on the couch, unfinished decorations all over our living room.  We stopped.  Sweet Mary {nothing like me!} stood there taking in the angel's news.  And boy what a trooper she was!  I think about her a lot when I think of the Christmas story.  No. I'm not Catholic, but I think we could learn a lot by examining her life and learning from how she dealt with her unusual position.  I always wonder why and how God picked her above all the rest.  What made her special?  What made her stand out above all the rest?  

“Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

That's where the Christmas story started...

Isn't it odd that God chose for it to start there?  With a woman?

We read the entire Christmas story
{which only takes about 5 minutes when you're reading from a Children's Bible.:-)}

And we're going to keep reading the Christmas story over and over again, because I want my girls to know what Christmas really is: their Savior was born.

...and I want my girls to know.

And you know what else?

I want to raise my girls to be like her.  

And I kinda want to say "my boy" too, but that would just not come across the right way.

Besides, he looks like he could use a little Christmas cheer.

 I am NOT anti-Christmas celebrating.  I like the parties and the food and the fellowship it brings.  I like the chance to dress up, to decorate the house, to have days off with my family.  Celebrating is beautiful and biblical.  And you'll be seeing some of it on this blog in the next few days.

But let us live with purpose this Christmas season.  Let us remember what is NOT Christmas...

...and what IS.

And let's pass that down to our children.

And for Pete's sake, let's not get all stressed out about our houses getting decorated to the high heavens. :-)

I've pegged my expectations down a notch this year and told myself, "Mary Beth, you have lots of great ideas for Christmas, but if you don't get to all of them, it is NO big deal!"

Because that is not Christmas either.