When my heart finds Christmas

Deck the halls, huh??
Last year at this time, I lived in a "junior one bedroom" apartment. It was slightly depressing to not have the room to decorate, but even more depressing to not even WANT to decorate. It had been one tough year and I did not have the will or the strength to open the boxes of Christmas decorations that were stacked on my apartment balcony. Too many ghosts of Christmas pasts...of my kids helping me to decorate the tree, of stuffing stockings at midnight, of having a big, beautiful home decked out for Christmas....heck, I didn't even have a fireplace for the stockings! Allison and I bought a "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" at Urban outfitters and it sat as the lone holiday decoration on my kitchen counter for the season. Ugh!

Fast forward (tho the time went by soooooo slowly....) to Christmas Season 2006! The light at the end of the tunnel was Christmas! I opened up those boxes of decorations a few weeks ago and was SO excited to pick up the one that had Allison's handprint on it from preschool, Zac's kindergarten picture tucked inside a wreath-shaped cookie dough ornament and ALL of my Santa Claus collection! There were no more "ghosts" of Christmas past...but the feeling of the true "spirit" of all the amazing Christmases that were lived and loved and remembered and celebrated! I could not wait to get a tree into my new home, hang the stockings by the chimney with care, and deck them halls! In the words of my son Zac, my home is very "densly" decorated...it is full of Christmas again, full of love again, full of wonderful memories and hope for the future!
My heart has found Christmas again this year...
I hope it finds you too...