We got our tree this week and it got me to thinking.
The climax of Christmas for me as a child was that decorated tree.
The living room was closed off after Thanksgiving and we were not even allowed a peek until the sun went down on Christmas Eve. Then we got to enter the candle-lit room and gaze at the tree decorated with ornaments and candles. Christmas Day held no significance at all for us. I was told this was all because that was the way you did Christmas in Germany, where my mother was raised.
But the missing piece to my childhood Christmases was that the whole reason for the holiday was left out.
Growing up in an atheist home, we never talked about why Christmas was. We were just given the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of the lead-up to it.
For me now, the smell of the Christmas tree is bliss.
As an adult, I get a wonderfully-happy feeling when we finally get the Christmas tree in the house. I love the smell, mostly. The smell of freshly cut pine is one of those supremely happy smells for me.
But, I now realize that Christmas is so much more than the tree.
Tree or no tree. Presents or no presents. It will be Christmas in spite of anything we do or prepare or buy. Christmas is not about getting together as a family. It is not about carols or evenings in front of a roaring fire. Those are all the ways we can celebrate.
But Christmas is a birthday. It is a date in history. It was a moment when everything changed in the world. And it came without a tree.
Now, I was busy this week with posts and videos. . .
I Entered The Wild World of YouTube This Week By Recording A Story I Told To My Kids When They Were Little
Look for a new episode next week, and also a video Homeschool Review WrapUp. . . please let me know how I am doing in the comments – and click subscribe so you will be notified when I post the next video!
I Had a Few Blog Posts To Share This Week
Friday Funnies, Flops, and Fails Link Up
Our week had flops and funnies and fails as well, but the biggest adjective that describes our week is ‘fantastic’.
If you had a Funny or a Flop or a Fail in your homeschooling life this week please consider linking up here to share it with us.
Did you have a flop or a fail in your homeschool this week? Maybe something happened that was just too funny!
Share it here in my blog hop – let’s show all those homeschooling moms who think that homeschooling has to be that Pinterest-perfect activity ALL the time what homeschooling really looks like!
Homeschooling can be messy and there may be tears, and your laundry absolutely never, ever, gets done! But it still is the absolute best thing you have ever done and the best life you could possibly imagine for your kids and for you, right?!
Places I linked up this post
Drop by and read the posts of some great homeschooling families at this week’s Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers’ Link Up! Another place to read great posts is the Homeschool Blog Link Up at the Homeschool Review Crew!
