O Christmas Tree

Every year we travel to the NC mountains to cut down that perfect Christmas tree.  We have to get one with out any holes, and the perfect shape.   We walk up and down the mountain, usually carrying one of my children on our shoulders, scouring the mountainside. Looking for the perfect one.  "This one is too tall, this one is too round".  It goes on and on, until we are finally so exhausted and so cold that we go back to the first one we looked at and chop it down.  (This year our tree is ginormous!)

This year as we were decorating our tree  it happened.  The stressful season snuck up on me. I didn't want it to happen, but it reared its ugly head.

 I have a very Norman Rockwell picture in my head of how the process should go.  You know what I am talking about.  Fire crackling in the background, Christmas carols being sung, hot chocolate with the perfect amount of marsh mellows snug in my hand, children laughing and singing along.... HA! Let me illustrate what it really looked like.

Kids running around the tree, me yelling "calm down, before you break something", Walker taking the newly hung ornaments off the tree, Carter putting the ornaments all in one place, and Tyler fussing about who gets to put the special ornaments up.
Crash!
 Yup! It happened. Through all of the hullabaloo an ornament got knocked off and broken.  What does this good mommy do? "That's it!", everyone STOP", I yelled!

It was not the reaction that Mr. Rockwell would have painted. But it was my reaction. One of our ornaments got broken. A fragile little Santa holding a heart with the words adoption painted on it.  In that moment I realized I was not going about the season with the right attitude. Who cares if we are loud?  Who cares if all of the ornaments are in the same spot?  Does it really matter if the ornaments get put on twice?

Jesus doesn't care.  He doesn't mind that we are a little loud, and cranky at times.  Right then, sitting on my floor, looking up at my ginormous tree full of homemade ornaments, I decided to make this year different.  Make it our own crazy "Griswald"- Asbury Christmas, with Jesus right in the center in our loud loving hearts!