I sure love this time of year! Merry Christmas to all of you — I hope this week will be filled with laughter and joy and time with ones you love.
We’re sure excited to spend some time with family members that we don’t see as often as we’d like to. And we’re excited to just wrap our arms around our little ones and savor the moments we have together, to try to steal some of that child-like joy. To enjoy these moments when they’re still small and little and Christmas is just plain magical.
I guess we’re all holding our kids just a little bit tighter this year.
So, we’re going to be off doing family stuff. I hope you are, too. I’ll be back next Friday, with an update on what’s been happening in the Smokies! I did put up some older posts that are still applicable, so you’ll have new(ish) things to read, if you stop by. 
Enjoy!
Until then, here’s a story about some of what we’ve been up to this holiday season.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here before, but my husband and I belong to a house church. There are around 15 of us that meet together (that includes a few kids!) each Sunday evening to share thoughts, build community, and attempt to life lives together.
A few weeks ago, one of our newer members, Lori, said (oh, and she’s from the South…), “Hey, how do y’all feel about Christmas caroling?”
My first thought? “My husband will HATE it.”
But I kind-of loved the idea, and I thought the kids would really get a kick out of it. So we all ended up caroling at a local retirement community last Sunday evening. We weren’t well prepared. We hadn’t practiced at all. Earlier that day, the kids and I had hastily made some reindeer candy canes to hand out. But that was all.
So, our kids donned Santa hats, and we loaded the itty-bitty ones into wagons and strollers and front-packs. And we were off. It was an unseasonably warm evening, so that was on our side.
We started off so unsure. Would people be angry? Would we look like fools? Would they throw us out of the neighborhood?
But, I’ll tell you, our worries were completely unfounded. As our kids bounded from doorbell to doorbell, we dusted off our Christmas carol-addled brains and belted out song after song. We were joyful! We were mostly on tune! We were unstoppable!
The people smiled. And let our kids pick from their candy dishes. And smiled some more. One guy even came out and kisses the babies. It was so heart-warming.
After we finished one long road of condos, we started back for the cars. Then someone mentioned that we could, in fact, go to the other side of the place. The husbands protested, but the kids begged. Before we knew it, we were off to more caroling. More joy-bringing. More laughs. Even the husbands were smiling.
It’s addicting, after all. Isn’t it amazing how good it feels to bring someone joy?
It seems like every year, we find that ONE perfect present for someone in one of our families. We buy it, no matter the cost, and we get just plain giddy waiting for him/her to open it.
We’ve got that gift this year. It’s SO perfect. It’s SO fun. It’s gonna be great.
Here’s to you — may you find plenty of opportunities to bring joy to others this holiday season. I can’t wait.