Merry Christmas from my family to yours:
A little peek into what I’m excited about, planning for and have already enjoyed this holiday season.
I appreciate all of you. And just wanted to take a few moments to say thank you for your support over the past year.
Christmas is almost here and I wanted to pause and share a bit of what’s going in my life personally.
- We’re taking the kids somewhere fun and it’s the first experience for our family. I’m sure I’ll be posting on IG stories, so stay tuned. This is part of their Christmas gift and we’re leaving in just a few short hours when they get home from school. I think I’m more excited than anyone!
- I’ve been enjoying the beautiful Christmas playlists I created on Spotify. I’m not ready to say goodbye to the music yet. But I guess I can keep on playing through the New Year. Who says I have to turn if off on January 1st!?
- Some of my greatest Christmas joy has already happened. My neighbor friends and I took the kids out Christmas caroling the other night. The joy that I felt in those moments is hard to compare. People coming together to bring cheer to the lonely, grieving and more at the holidays. And the kids are just full of energy and love. So cute!
- I had tea with my neighbor yesterday. She’s 92. She is so dear. The conversation was special and I am so glad I went. We threw peanuts out for the birds. We shared about family and what we bake for the holidays. I just feel it’s a treasure to learn from this generation that has lived through so much.
- Christmas Brunch – Yes, one of my favorite meals of the whole year. We’re usually never home for dinner. So, I make a homemade breakfast for before the gift time. Then we head off to have dinner with family or friends. This Christmas morning I’ll be serving up homemade cinnamon rolls, Christmas brunch punch, and Hashbrown Casserole. What are you serving this holiday?
- We’ll be traveling to Philly to see my family on Monday. We’ll be enjoying food and gifts and all the fun. Then on Tuesday we’re heading down to see all the fun sights. Have you seen the Macy’s light show or the Charles Dickens Christmas carol or the Comcast display? It’s a fun tradition I had growing up in the city. So I’ll be taking the kids to see the various sights. If you know of something great, that I didn’t mention, leave a comment. I’d love to hear about your best-loved attractions downtown at Christmastime!
Need some ideas for leftover Christmas ham?
What about these awesome cheesy sandwiches? Or I’ve got lots of great ham recipes to use.Ham, potato and corn Chowder or Cheesy ham and vegetable chower or you can make an egg casserole with the cubes of ham.
Christmas can be tough on all of us for various reasons. It’s supposed to be a season of “Merry” and “Joy” but at times it feels depressing and sad. It is for my little family in some ways. Some of our family relationships are very strained. Some relatives we don’t see at all because they choose to keep their distance and not visit the family anymore. And it’s hard. We can try and pretend it’s not but it is.
So, if your heart is grieving in some ways, I can relate. The holidays somehow make it all seem like everything should be jolly and that surely we can all just get along for one week out of the year. But my wish for getting along with all the family doesn’t make it come true. So I do what I’ve done for years, I pray and believe that it will get better. What other hope do I have?
Believing God for great things in 2017!
Thank you for Jesus and for this wonderful gift that came to Earth as a babe so many years ago.
May the miracle of Christmas forever linger with us.
Merry Christmas 2016 to you and yours!
Love you all,
Melanie
Leave a Reply