It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Well I have been wanting to get my tree up for several days now, but I just didn't find the energy until today...December 1st...but now it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house!

I put in some Christmas CD's, lit the fireplace and drank some hot cider as I sorted through the boxes of ornaments and decided which ones I wanted to use this year.

It was a long process. It seems that the older I get, EVERYTHING is a long process!
But it does look festive and has put me in the mood to wrap some gifts and write some Christmas Cards.

To me it just doesn't seem like Christmas without sending and receiving cards. That's because when I was a little girl I would always enjoy helping my mom with the Christmas Cards. Then we'd lick all those stamps and envelopes and take our stacks of cards to the post office and mail them.

But the best part for me was getting the mail everyday during the Christmas Season and opening the cards that people sent to our family, and reading the notes and letters inside, and going through the pictures that people would send us. Then we would string the cards around the doorways and across the windows on ribbon.

I loved the variety of cards we would receive with pictures of snow and Santa Claus and his sleigh, and Rudolph...or the ones of children playing in the snow and building snowmen. I loved the Nativity scenes with the manger and baby Jesus with the big Star hanging in the sky above. And the Shepherds too....and the Three Wise Men bringing their gifts to the Savior. All of the Christmas scenes would give me warm fuzzies and such happy feelings. And my momma enjoyed them just as much as I did.

Since I have been married and had kids of my own I have always done Christmas Cards. However in recent years we have lost our granddaughter, John's parents and his sister, and my sister, several friends and other family members, so during some of those times of grief we missed a year here and there. This year I am glad to say that we are resuming the life long tradition. I used to always write handwritten notes in each card, but now I type a Christmas letter and print copies of it to put inside each card. I didn't use to like form letters, but it does save a lot of time...and it helps me not to get writers cramp! (:>)

In this fast paced life of email, and cell phones and texting, and facebook... and with the ever increasing postage prices, some people don't use "snail mail" as much
as they used to, but I say it is so worth it to evoke the happy childhood memories from my Childhood Christmases.

Do any of you enjoy Christmas cards as much as I do? To me it is just as important as singing Christmas Carols,...or watching Christmas movies.

Well I have stayed up way too late, so I had better call it a night and go on to bed. I just wanted to include a few pictures and maybe cause some of you that haven't put the tree up yet to pull it out and get started. Christmas will be here before we know it...and I think we need to enjoy every minute of it.

Good Night! God Bless You My Bloggy Friends!