What I Love About Christmas

Christmas...besides the dreadful midwest weather, Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. Celebrating the birth of our Savior - the light that saved us for all eternity - it just doesn't get better than that. Jesus truly is the reason for the season.

There are a million things I love about Christmas. Jesus is my #1 reason of course, but there are so many other things I look forward to this time of year. In no particular order…

C - Cards. I love receiving holiday cards in the mail with all of your lovely faces. Last year we started a new tradition where we keep the cards all year (very out of character for me) and each night choose a card randomly and pray for that family. Isn’t that a great idea? In reality, we started strong and ended very, very weak. But I’m excited to give it another shot this year!

H - Holiday music. Whether it is our worship band singing at church or holiday music on the radio, I just love it. Such good messages and so many memories while listening to the same songs I grew up with, maybe sung in a slightly different way. However...once December 26th hits, I am D-O-N-E with holiday music and ready to move on with my life. Can I get an amen?!

R - Ribbons, bows and wrapping paper. I love to wrap presents. Since the number of gifts I buy every year keeps growing, I don’t take the time to make them as pretty as I used to. I am kind of sad about that but don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I am also pretty particular about wrapping so letting my girls “help” me has been a real challenge. The struggle is real people. I also rarely use gift bags for Christmas because it is just so much fun to tear open a gift. Why does wrapping a gift feel old school these days? Bonus tip from my father-in-law many years ago. He wrapped each of his grandkids gifts in the same wrapping paper so he could keep them straight. So now every year I let the kids pick out a roll of wrapping paper and I wrap all of their gifts in "their" paper. Cool idea, huh? Feel free to steal it. Sorry about the stock image below, I forgot to take a pic of the gifts under my tree and now they are mostly gone.

I - Iowa. Okay, so I am pretty vocal about my dislike of the cold. But you can’t deny the beauty of a fresh snowfall on Christmas morning. A white Christmas. There is nothing like it. Once December 25th passes, snow is my arch nemesis. Snow = cold = I am miserable. But back to Iowa, there is nowhere else I’d rather be. Four seasons, close to family, Midwest nice. Iowa rocks.

S - Sleepwear. You know, pajamas (there is no P in Christmas people!) We started a tradition in our family years ago that our first gift of Christmas is opened on Christmas Eve and all of the kids get matching pajamas. A couple of years ago we included cousins too! It was definitely a challenge to find sizes 3T to 12 this year, but when they all wear them at the same time the cuteness is overwhelming! Oh, and of course, I’m wearing new flannel pajamas on this cold Christmas morning. Doesn’t get much better than sleepwear on Christmas!

T - Traditions. As a child, we had so many wonderful holiday traditions: baking and decorating sugar cookies, Christmas Sunday school program at church followed by driving around and looking at lights, getting a special ornament each year, going to the Christmas tree farm, gatherings with extended family and so many more. And it has been so much fun to start new Christmas traditions, a blend of my childhood and my husband’s childhood. Things my children look forward to every year. We do everything above (minus the tree farm, that only lasted a couple of years until we went artificial and never looked back) and have introduced new things like movies we watch as a family, our Elf on a Shelf (hold me), advent calendars and Christmas pajamas.

M - Mom. Being a mom for Christmas was a holiday game-changer for me. It is one thing to celebrate the holidays with your family, but when you have your own family and get to experience the joy of seeing your children wake up on Christmas morning - big eyes and bigger smiles? There is nothing like it. It is a lot of work for us Mom’s...getting the right present in the right color or the right size - not for the faint of heart. But so worth it. And a shout out to my mom who always made Christmas special for us. I had no idea how hard of a task it was until I had kids of my own!

A - Anticipation. There is just something so sweet about the anticipation of Christmas. Kids opening their advent calendars every afternoon and wishing the time would go by faster. Parents wishing time would slow down so you can squeeze in all you have left to do. But it’s also a time to fully appreciate the season and the anticipation of the celebration of the birth of Jesus. P.S. We are missing one of our advent calendars in the photo below. Last night the little man destroyed his trying to get his final piece of chocolate. It promptly went in the garbage.

S - Spending time with family. I just love spending time with family over the holidays. My family is totally awesome (obviously) and so much fun to hang out with. I also scored in the in-law department too. Each of our family gatherings are so different, but so much fun. Laughs, food, sweets, more laughs, more food, more sweets. Holidays spent with family are some of the best memories I have. This is a photo of how we spent Christmas this year on the Kleckner farm, with 13 baby mini golden doodles! Never a dull moment on the farm.

I hope you are having a blessed Christmas. Thank you for being so supportive of my new blogging passion. It is awesome to get feedback from you and I love reading your comments! Look for a new Facebook page early 2018!

Merry Christmas!

Until next time,
Neko