Guest Post by MacKenzie Monroe
{Week 3: An Advent Celebration Series}
*Christmas is nearing and we are celebrating the Advent season with a blog series exclusively for December! Four real moms will share four uniquely diverse ways to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Each woman is beautifully wise. Friends, you will be blessed by their hearts and their passions for Jesus.
It is my great honor to welcome blogger and podcaster, MacKenzie Monroe to the blog this morning. MacKenzie is a homeschooling mom and writer with a glowing enthusiasm for teaching the love of Jesus and a great wisdom for Gospel-living. May this morning’s post encourage your heart to cultivate loveliness (as MacKenzie teaches) in the midst of the Christmas season. Wherever you are today, sweet friend? I pray that this post will speak rest to your spirit with the same beauty it spoke to mine.*
When I was growing up my family did Christmas the same every year. Same meal, same house, same sequence of events. It was entirely predictable in every way but it was ours, we all knew it and somehow the predictableness of it all helped build the anticipation of what was to come each year. The sameness made it special.
So, how do you figure out what those things are? Well, I think identifying what matters to our families boils down to a few of simple questions.
When I did this it really helped me realize that my kids aren’t wishing our house was more Pinterest-perfect. What they are counting on this season is decorating Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses as a family, watching Christmas movies with hot chocolate and looking at Christmas lights. I can do that! That doesn’t feel overwhelming to me and that is fabulous in my book!
When it comes right down to it, we are better able to facilitate our children’s Christmases if we ourselves are feeling filled up during this season. So, don’t abandon those particular ways you decorate, or specific foods you make and adore, or candles you love to light each evening just because they didn’t make your kids’ lists. Identify what matters to you and make time for it this season as well.
Yes!!!! So often I try to fit everything else in before I even ask my family what is important to them. Excellent advice, as usual. 🙂
I completely agree, Stacy! I value MacKenzie’s advice here, because I so rarely remember to ask my family which parts are truly special to them. I get so busy making everything just right in December, that this simple idea of “asking them” goes under my radar completely! MacKenzie’s so wise, am I right?! Merry Christmas, Stacy!
Mackenzie, thanks for this great post about how to create a Christmas season full of intentional traditions while maintaining our sanity! We all talked about our favorite traditions this year, and it has really helped prioritize our plans and create a memorable season celebrating Christ’s birth.