Holiday Lists

My fingers are itching to sew. With all the new babies all around me, my creative side wants to make every cute thing I see. I've managed to do a little but that is how much time I have...little.
It's just one of those busy seasons in life. Not the sports season kind of busy (yet) but the season of life kind of busy.
My list-making self also has a ton of homemade Christmas gift ideas that will more than likely not happen.
I love the holidays but this year they will be a little different. Not a bad kind of different. Just different.
We have spent almost twenty years forming our family traditions. I love the way we spend Thanksgiving.
Usually, with the exception of only a couple of years, we are all together. The seven of us enjoy our traditional Thanksgiving dinner and spending the day together. Most years we enjoy watching my husband put up our Christmas tree. He is very picky and doesn't let us help. Lol
This task has involved anything from power tools to well, whatever he finds useful. The tree is always beautiful. He makes me smile.
My family enjoys having all the wonderful leftovers to themselves. 
I know many families who have to divide their time between two sets of in-laws and the day just becomes stressed rather than enjoyable.
I'm so thankful we decided early on to stay home on thanksgiving.
This year will be different but wonderful all the same. It will be near impossible to have all my kids together. I suspected this would happen as they grew older. We more than likely will enjoy our dinner with extended family this year. (so glad we taught our daughters to cook!)
Traditions are wonderful but we can't neglect to let new ones form as our families grow and get older. As young parents it's good to stick with how you do things each year. Your kids grow to look forward to these small things. It's also a great thing to be flexible enough to allow some change.
If not, you could very easily miss out on the blessing of new gifts that God would love to bring into your life.
So I'm looking forward to the holidays this year. The most desired gift on my personal list is the gift of new beginnings. New babies, new traditions, and new surroundings.
My list this year is filled with a lot less things to do, and a lot more time to just enjoy.   

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