"Yuletide Ledge"

Both my  girlies ready for church on Christmas Sunday 2011

As I mentioned in my last post, I started decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving this year. This has been a good thing for several reasons:

1. It has put things in a great perspective for me and I am truly already celebrating these "Holy Days."
2. I haven't felt rushed or stressed out trying to get it all done. Maybe I have too much Christmas "stuff" but, doing it in phases has made the whole process much more fun and I have even been able to enjoy the work.
3. This year, putting up the tree, stringing the lights and hanging the stocking have been a "get to" instead of a "have to."

Honestly, this really has been a blessing in disguise. I would like to say that I had been intentional to do this, but when I looked at the calendar and realized how quickly my early December days were filling up, I realized that I didn't have much of a choice. If it was going to get done, it had to happen now.

While I am confessing, I will ask for your prayers too. With everything that has to be done, the gift buying, the cooking baking, the party going, you know how easy it is to quickly become overwhelmed and miss the true reason for our season altogether. There are finances to manage and family "situations" to consider as well as ministry opportunities and obligations. I can see the "Yuletide Ledge" looming with its slippery slope of temptation leading to a downward spiral of becoming overwhelmed and missing the blessings of this season.

Are you there too?

I will commit to pray for you, but I also want to ask "How do you keep Christ your focus during the bustle of the season?" I am always on the look out for practical advice on how to keep Him first.

Decorating early and in phases has already helped me. I think that this practice will definitely become a new tradition, a new tradition with the purpose of helping me keep Christ in my Christmas.