The Christmas Season!

It seems with all the snow the east coast is getting Christmas should be easily celebrated!  I'm not sure what it is about snow, but it sure helps create the mood for the holiday season.  However, for those of us without the snow this season, where does that leave us?  It has been a long time since I celebrated Christmas without snow and cold.  As I sit and remember the times growing up in Texas without snow and cold for Christmas, I wonder what helped me to celebrate Christmas.  John and I have worked hard these last two weeks to figure out how to celebrate Christmas in a new tradition.  I believe, as I think about my growing up years the season felt Christmasy because we had traditions.  Since this will be our first of many Christmases down here we are working on creating traditions that will last.  The first tradition started is going to be decorating on John's birthday.  It was such a wonderful way to celebrate John's birthday and also get ready for Christmas.  This year since we didn't have a Christmas tree to pull out of storage and didn't really want to spend money on a tree we made our own.  We all had such a wonderful time of making the branches and leaves.  Since we also didn't have ornaments in storage, we decided to focus on making a "Jesse Tree".  I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with this part of Christmas, but it is an amazing way to focus on Jesus without all the hubbub of the holiday.  Each day we put another "ornament" on the tree that has to do with the Christmas story.  I found a website that even has the pictures ready to print and so that is how we are decorating our tree this year.  It is a combination of the Advent season mixed with the trimming of the tree each day and hearing the Word of God.  As for other traditions, we may have to wait until next year to add more.  We serve an amazing God and are exceedingly thankful for all that He has done for us this year and will continue to do in the future.  May God richly bless your lives and families as well.  Merry Christmas!  Feliz Navidad!!