Christmas
Well, here we are! Christmas is just a few days away! Recently, I added some content on our About page, noting that my husband, Steven, prefers to make things look beautiful around here, rather than work directly with the cows. I thought I’d put up a quick post about his handiwork since Christmas is a perfect time to add some fabulous to our everyday lives!
See what I mean?!? When people come to the house, they always look at me and say something like, “Wow! Your house looks so beautiful!” And then I say, “Thanks so much… but I can’t take any credit because Steven did all of it.” It’s funny how the general assumption is that the woman of the house is responsible for the way things look, but in our house, it’s pretty much all Steven. And I am grateful that he values beauty as much as he does.
On Thanksgiving Day, he starts pulling out the decorations. (OK, it might have been a few days early this year… haven’t we all needed some early Christmas cheer over the last year?) We also grab a couple of garlands from Costco, and wreaths and a tree from Lowes or HD. Then he gets busy!
I don’t know how he does it but Steven can look at just about any plant, shrub, or tree in the yard and see how some of its leaves, branches, or berries could be added to the greenery we bought at the store. So he embellishes the ordinary wreaths and makes more swags and ties them up just so. And it’s magic in the end.
But what’s it all for? It’s easy to get caught up in the fun of decorating, and in the anticipation of waiting for presents on Christmas Day. But that’s not the real reason we do it. We do it to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus— the Son of God!!— who was born as a human baby, to fulfill all the promises given to Israel and mankind, to show us a different way to love, to make a way to God for us because we couldn’t make our own way.
Over the years, we’ve tried to make this the most important thing for us and for our kids. One of our traditions for decorating inside the house is using nativities: on the tree, in the window, on the table, anywhere we can think of!
There is a second nativity in this photo. Can you find it?
The other tradition that has been wonderfully grounding for our family is our other tree: The Jesse Tree. It’s like a countdown to Christmas, except that we are recounting the story of God’s work from Creation to Jesus’ birth, and remembering how all things worked together for God’s glory and our good. Each day, we read a story from the Bible and talk about how it points to Jesus as the fulfillment of all things, and then we put that day’s ornament on the tree, ending with the star on top.
I’ve seen lots of ideas for DIY Jesse Trees but this was the one that I was able to make that would last from year to year.
I realize that this post has been a bit different from my usual posts about life on the farm… but this is part of our life on the farm and I wanted to share it with you. So… Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!