A Simple Christmas

   Someone shared a Facebook post of a picture of a small nativity scene with lights behind it. It said, "The first Christmas was pretty simple. It's okay if yours is too." I like that.
   We are going to have a pretty simple Christmas this year. In fact there is a good chance we won't have a tree. We do have a lovely Advent Calendar made by Annjuli, a woman in Relief Society. It's a felt Christmas tree with 24 numbered pockets above and below the tree. In each pocket there is an ornament with Velcro on the back. every day you can stick an ornament on the tree. Each ornament has a meaning. I love picking out the ornament every morning reading about it's meaning and putting it on the tree. The only other decoration we have up is the statue of Santa worshiping the Christ child in the manager. That's it.
  I do have five Christmas CDs in our CD player. They've been there for two weeks. Now that I'm not forced to listen to Christmas music for eight to 12 hours a day five days a week, I'm beginning to enjoy it again.
  I did some Christmas baking yesterday. I made the traditional cut out cookies using the metal cookie cutters I have and the new cookie cutters that St Nicholas gave me. (Yes, this year I had something in my shoe.) I made peanut butter blossoms, oatmeal raisin cookies and some dipped peanut butter sandwich cookies. I think next year I might try making homemade peppermint patties.
  Last night we went out with our friends Mac and Ellen to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. They have a lovely Christmas light exhibit. Inside of the main building were four trees all decorated differently. One of them was a poinsettia tree. I'm not a fan of the plant, but had to admit it was lovely. The outside lights were just gorgeous. In the waterfall was a stream of blue twinkling lights with large white flowers made of lights and a large ball of snow. There were clear balls of ice with lights flickering inside. There were flower shaped lights all over. They also had a few small outdoor wood fires. For a small fee people could make smores by roasting marshmallows over the fire. It was fun to walk around although I wished that I had some warmer socks on inside my boots.
   This is a much different December than others I've known. I've looked back at Facebook posts from other years that talk about how much I dislike December and that I want it to be over. Not this year. Maybe it's because I have a break from the crabby people that retail workers have to deal with. Maybe it's because I no longer care about the outside trappings of the holiday. I now care more about the spiritual significance it holds for me as a Christian and how I can be a better practitioner of my faith.
  Yes, this is going to be a very simple Christmas at our house. We won't have the decorations or the presents or the parties or the stress. It's going to be filled with love, good memories, good friends, and good cookies with eggnog. It's going to be simply wonderful.