Twinkle lights and pumpkins

This year we are just ready for the "Twinkle"

 

Braxtyn, Graham, Noah and I have been increasingly involved in MoezArt Productions this year. I blame practicing for a Christmas play every Monday night has to have something to do with it. I also have been Christmas shopping early, planning a huge dinner and I think I've baked a pie or some dessert with pumpkin in it, every week since September.  Something about this year just sings, Christmas. It couldn't be the weather, so it must be the twinkle.

I think it might have been Meg Ryan's fault. She always puts me in the holiday mood...When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. All the movies I watch religiously every fall.

 

The sooner I begin playing Christmas music, the sooner it takes me back to some of my most precious memories. As soon as I hear Amy Grant singing Sleigh Bells, I am right back in the downstairs of my parent's home where I grew up. I'm making Christmas ornaments with my mom and decorating our tree. Every Bing Crosby song takes me to my first date on my sixteenth birthday with Daniel. At the zoo for Zoo Lights, sitting by the lake wondering if this guy will every figure out he's supposed to marry me. When Frank Sinatra sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, I am back in Central Park walking hand in hand with Daniel, hoping this date never ends. I could go on and on and on..the list is endless and beautiful.

 

 As an adult, I swore to never get bitter or angry with my friends the Holidays. I swore to love them and keep them special for our whole family, even when things got crazy. And well, things got crazy. But, I've kept to my word and for me these are the times to continue to look forward to. The twinkle lights and the pumpkins, the apple pies and the ornament making. Even when I inevitably cook the turkey upside down (which is all the rage, now), leave the giblets in the neck while baking, hang Christmas lights like a 2 year old, want to drop to the floor at the end of the day and yell at everyone to pay attention to the Macy's parade until it's over. This is the time when I purposefully set aside moments of sweet memories. When I purposefully cherish the crazy that happens daily. And when I most purposefully, steal time to treat my husband and I to mini-vacations for our birthdays.

This is the twinkle that shines on for me each day as Christmas approaches.

It is the most beautiful reminder that without Christ's birth, this life and the star that lights my heart and leads me each year to worship at the manager is the reason for all of these beautiful moments in time.

 

So no  matter when you decide to put up a tree, or play your music...

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.