Christmas Spirit

I've really been anticipating this Christmas week. I want it to be really magical for our family. Of course, I also have to figure in time for sleepless nights with baby, occasional tantrums, dishes, and never-ending laundry, so my idea of "magical" certainly has to include some healthy doses of reality. But magical nonetheless.

We started it off last night with a tradition we started last year. We ate dinner by candlelight, beginning the meal by talking about the birth of the Savior, the Light of the World, and ending it by hanging the final set of ornaments on the tree. It is a set of fabric ornaments my sister-in-law Elaine gave us several years ago. We talked about what each ornament symbolizes and then took turns hanging them. (And yes, I do know that these symbols were actually Pagan in origin and only appropriated by Christians in order to...blah, blah, blah...whatever. Nothing says Christmas like a little usurping, in my book.)

 

Afterwards we listened to Johnny Mathis while lying on the floor and taking in the tree lights. We talked about the events of the coming week and finished it off by reading The Littlest Angel. It was a nice way to spend a quiet evening before the hustle and bustle of this week began. It might have even been a tiny bit magical.