So it’s birthday week around here. Our oldest daughter (the middle one in the picture) turns 18 today, and our youngest will be 16 on Monday. I just don’t feel old enough to have children these ages!! You’re likely familiar with the following quote from Gretchen Rubin, but it’s so true: “The days are long, but the years are short.”
Here are several good posts I found this past week.
Raluca lists 7 Things That Will Help You Enjoy a Stress-Free Holiday Season.
Ruth has Ideas for Keeping Christ at the Center of Your Christmas.
Joy shares Family Christmas Traditions to Start This Year.
Taryn details Quick and Easy Christmas Table Decor Ideas.
On a non-holiday note, if you like farmhouse style, you’ll enjoy Rhoda’s post highlighting Big Family Little Farmhouse.
Kate talks about what she’s learned as a mom in Seasons of Our Lives.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
18 & 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of quality Christmas stuff here 👍 We do a lot of those traditions: Advent calendar, gingerbread houses, Christmas cookies, a new ornament or two reflecting something meaningful specifically about the past year, Christmas Eve candlelight service, etc. I want to add some new way to serve in this year.
LOVELOVELOVE the post on Seasons of Our Lives!!!!!
I know, 16 and 18 – I can’t even believe it!!
I kind of wish we’d done an ornament tradition over the years. We do get an ornament for our tree when we visit a new place (like on our trip to Chicago earlier this summer), but it would be neat to have a bunch of ornaments that actually belong to our girls and that they could take with them when they start their own homes.
Ummmm, I don’t know if I’ll be able to give up the ornaments & let the kids take them one day… They may just have to come visit the memories at my house!!! 😛 Although, I *have* been getting better at letting go of material attachments, so maybe God *will* ready my heart when it’s actually time! 😀
I totally get that!! 🙂 I think passing ornaments on to children was on my mind because I’d just talked to a friend whose daughter is finishing college, and she was talking about packing up her daughter’s ornaments and giving them to her when she gets her own apartment. But I can also see it as a great way to get your kids to come back and still participate in decorating the tree! 🙂
There’s no way that you’re old enough to have children that old! You must have gotten married at 13 and started having children immediately. 😉
I really enjoyed all of these Christmas posts! We bought our tree yesterday, and hopefully we will decorate it tonight. I promised my daughters that we would get out the rest of our Christmas decorations tomorrow.
Thank you for the reminder to slow down this Christmas season. I have some unimportant things on my calendar that I plan to cancel tomorrow to make time to enjoy this season with my family.
You’re so kind!! I actually have friends who got married around the same time my husband and I did who already have children in college. Glad I have a little more time left with my girls at home…but I like your take on the situation – that I really can’t be this old!! 😉
I think it’s a constant tug-of-war in December to keep a good balance between Christmas activity and slow time to savor the season. I know I need to ask God to guide my heart into the right priorities – really all the time, but especially now when the focus can so easily shift away from celebrating Jesus’ birth.