With each passing year, I feel like Time drags me kicking and screaming into the Christmas Season. It's not that I don't love Christmas, I really do. When I was little, it was such a wonderful time of celebration. As an adult, I realize now that all of the fun times of Christmas when I was younger didn't just magically happen. There was lots of planning, money and time involved.
Since Quinn has been layed off, we have been busier than usual. I'm incredibly grateful to say that he's doing a wonderful job of providing for our family. He's still driving a bus taking college team to their athletic events, he still works at the boys school, he's picked up a few jobs helping people with various home improvement projects. Our calendar is packed. Despite the never ending request for snacks, our children are not starving. I'm proud of my husband and his willingness to do whatever it takes to take care of us!
In addition to Quinn's schedule being busier, mine has become busier as well. I've taken on a new roll at the school as the Fundraising Coordinator... I still have a seat on the board and I'm still the event coordinator as well. I've also been doing more volunteer work mentoring teen moms in our county. When I looked at our puzzle that is our calendar and realized I have too many pieces for the allotted spaces, and I panicked when I realized that Christmas is coming- and with it comes a handful of pieces for our already full puzzle.
This past weekend, Quinn was gone for a few days on a bus trip. My goal for the time he was gone was to get the Christmas tree up. Before he left, I asked him to get all of the Christmas totes out for me. He did. But not before letting me know he doubted I would get to getting any of the decorations up. Of course, by doubting me, he knew that I would get to it, if nothing more than just to spite him. And I did. We had decided to to do a lot of rearranging before putting the tree up and since we hadn't found enough time when we were both together, the rearranging was still on the never ending to do list. So I did that part too. I ended up putting the tree up at eleven o'clock the night before he got home.
As I pulled ornaments out of the box, I started getting caught up in the story of our family. I'm usually not very sentimental about things, but we have a lot of sentimental ornaments that tell our story. Quinn and I both have ornaments from our childhood, we have a few ornaments that Quinn's mom made for us out of mementos from our family trip to Europe - where Quinn proposed to me in Switzerland on Christmas Eve. There are several ornaments that we bought together on our first Christmas as husband and wife. We also have a photo ornament from every year for each of the kids that reminds me of how quickly they have grown up.
As I put our tree together with the mementos of our life, I realized how blessed we truly are. My reluctance to embrace the Christmas Season because it meant I would have to squeeze more pieces into our calendar was selfish and immature. All of those pieces that make up our calendar are ultimately what defines our family, and what memories are made of. As long as we are careful not to fill our valuable time with meaningless things, we will be rewarded with precious memories and life-changing experiences.
I've resolved to taking every spare second to thank God for every little piece of our puzzle - even when it seems there are way too many. I'm thankful that, despite Quinn's job situation, he continues to provide above and beyond our needs. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work at my kids school and to serve in a ministry that God has called me to. I'm grateful for the friends who know me better than I know myself sometimes - but still love me anyways! I'm thankful for my amazing husband who supports me and encourages me in whatever I do. I can't begin to express the gratitude in my heart for the four lives God has blessed me with. They each challenge me in so many different ways, and despite my impatience and the fact that I always fall short - they love me unconditionally.
Finally, I'm eternally grateful that God, in his loving wisdom, chose to send his Son to us in human form so that we could be saved from ourselves and have eternal life. In those quiet late-night hours, He reminded me that He is the biggest and most important piece of our puzzle, and as long as I remember that, he will be sure all of the other pieces fall into place.
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