This week brings about the 2018 Christmas Preparations in our home. We are in full swing at getting ready for the holiday. Red and Green are decking the walls and halls throughout our home.
I’m thankful because last year we were not sure we would have a happy Christmas. Last year, we found out at the last minute that a family member had selfishly donated all of our holiday decorations, trees, ornaments, stockings, kids collectibles and left us with nothing for our holiday. It was a heartbreaking time for our family.
Christmas is my Mother’s favorite holiday and it’s always done BIG at our house. Growing up, our home was the one in the neighborhood that everyone came by to see. My Mother had extensive Christmas displays throughout her yard. It was truly beautiful to see the joy her home brought to others. Santa was also known to make a yearly appearance at her home and the joy he brought to the children of the neighborhood was wonderful!
When we lost everything last year, her heart broke and so did our children’s. They’d grown up seeing these same decorations from birth and looked forward to them every year. I know that these are just material things and they are not the important reason for the holiday but to our family, they represented family traditions that had been passed on for as long as I can remember.
I reached out online to our friends and we were lovingly surprised by so many who truly cared and helped out. I asked for friends to simply send us ornaments to fill our tree to replace the ones we’d lost that were so special. See, to me, having something special from each of our friends would mean so much to each of my children and my Mother as well. And it has… we see just how blessed we are by all of you!
This year as we decorate, we bring out all those thoughtful pieces. We have them filling our tree and placed throughout our home. And every single one makes me think of the special friend who sent it to us. These gifts will remain in our home for life and be passed on to our children as well.
Next week, when our preparations are complete, I will share pictures with all of you to show just how much your gifts mean to us and how we have used them this year. This is our first year of really decorating our home for Christmas as last year we were still moving in. (@e didn’t even have our couch out of storage for Christmas 2017!) We are so thankful to everyone who helped us out and helped to give us a wonderful Christmas last year and who showed us love when we held so much pain.
I pray for blessings for all of you this Christmas season. May your homes be filled with love and happiness always.
Until next time…
Dana