TBT Post ~ Christmas Blessings

I know that according to the calendar, the season of Thanksgiving has already passed. But should it ever really pass? Shouldn’t we be thankful all year, for all of God’s blessings? It’s so easy to get caught up in all the “things” (and I use that word in the truest sense) we don’t have, that we miss all that is sitting right before us. Finding contentment is such an issue in our society.

This year, as I was putting up our Christmas tree, I could not help but think of all the blessing in my life, and many of those blessings are represented by ornaments I’ve been given over the years. All of these are treasures to me, just like the ones they remind me of.

My husband is one of the greatest blessings in my life. It was God who brought us together –there’s no other explanation. Maybe that’s a story I’ll share on some other TBT post. He gave me this little writing mouse.

The first Christmas we were married, my mom sent me all these homemade, stuffed ornaments. You see I was pregnant at that point and she said that little ones like to touch and if I put these around the bottom of the tree, the curious baby would not get hurt. This little stocking once fit my foot, but its mate was lost to sock never never land.

This little doll always reminds me of my Grandma. I was trying to sell these to raise money for a class trip to Mexico. She bought two of the dolls and then gave them to me for Christmas that year. I never made it to Mexico.

My sisters are my best friends in all the world. No one could ever replace them. My sister, Martha, gave me this purple (my favorite color) ornament when she came back from a trip to Aruba. My sister, Sarah, gave me this little hedgehog that just makes me smile.

This lantern is among the oldest ornaments on my tree. My cousins, Marji and Debbie, painted it for me and gave it to me as a gift. Miraculously it has never broken.

My friend, Sonya knows that I miss the snow of NY that I grew up with. One year she gave me this little snowman in an ornament exchange.

Kathleen is the creator of this little lady holding a basket of fabric. While we don’t get together often now, we were once berry-picking and quilting buddies.

This little pasta angel came from one of my students in my writing classes at the homeschool co-op. She is sweet inside and out.

Ornaments that belong to my kids cover the tree. Each year I have bought them one to add to a collection they can take with them when they move out. That way they will have a good start on their own trees.

These things are all precious to me, not because of what they are necessarily, but because of who they remind me of. After my mom passed away, use kids asked (begged) my dad if we could throw away all the ornaments we had made over the years that my mom saw as treasures. I’m glad Dad agreed to throw away everything that was glued and glittered to death, but I also believe my mom was on to something. I’m not sure it was the actual ornament she treasured, but the people that gave them to her.

This Christmas, as you decorate your home and wrap gifts, think about what is truly important. Pray for friends and family, give a simple gift to someone who least suspects it.

Make it a truly blessed Christmas.