The Harriman Family: Tis the Season

Friday, January 23, 2015

Tis the Season

You know I love the holidays and all the decorations and traditions and baking and crafting and parties and food and family and shopping. I can go overboard sometimes. This year, though, I tried to take it down a notch and not try to cram-pack so much fun that it's not really fun. Know what I mean? In September I started a new Bible study group that meets on Tuesday mornings. Early in December, before we took a break for the holidays, we had a Christmas brunch. We ate and shared prayer requests, what we were thankful for, and holiday traditions that we share with our families. My new friend, Kelly Parks, also led us in singing Christmas Carols. She also read the birth story of Jesus and reminded us of Luke 2:19: "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." This verse rang in my head throughout the holidays as I tried to do that very thing with my kids. I want to be that kind of mom. Treasuring, pondering in my HEART. Not stressing, rushing, crazy mama. So I got my tree up later than usual? So what! I didn't have my presents wrapped and under the tree early. Who cares? We didn't get everything done on the to do list. It doesn't matter! What matters is we had probably the best, happiest, most relaxed Christmas ever. And I didn't build it up so much that as soon as it was over I crashed like I did last year. Less gifts. No travel. Mooostly thankful and happy kids. Happy mama. Not in a million pictures. But in my heart. Now...I did still wrap my kids up in red and green like a Christmas gift every day of December, and I did take a few pictures of that cuteness. Probably my favorite month of wardrobe all year. And would you believe I only bought one matching outfit this year...all the others were on year two.