#NailedIt

I thought I wanted a bigger Christmas tree this year. Brett and I bought this tree with our first apartment, and every year I’ve been working on getting up enough nerve to dish out the money for either a fancy upgrade or to take a family outing to buy a real tree.

I now realize, my tree is exactly what we need. You see, with exactly two weeks until Christmas, my son begged and pleaded with me to put up the Christmas tree. Today, I obliged.  We traveled to the back of the garage, pulled out the box, and up it went. As my husband and I scoured the tree for “male” socket from the second layer,  my son squealed with delight at the lights just from the bottom layer. After about ten minutes of high-intensity searching, Braden walks up to the tree to take a closer look and immediately picks up the plug to determine exactly what it is.

VOILA! More lights followed my more delighted squealing.

My son then begins to rummage through the box for ornaments and commences hanging them everywhere he can find space. He does not care whether the ornaments match, if there are more than three on the same small branch or if one side of the tree is more heavily decorated than the other. He is enjoying every minute of the process…

As I watched him put together the tree, I wonder how many people are like me. How many of us get so consumed in Pinterest perfect holidays that we forget to enjoy the process? How many of us throw money away to get “bigger” and “better” decorations?

What if I had decided on the bigger tree? I can guarantee I would have also decided on some theme or color scheme that would have ended with frustration as I tried to either run behind and “correct” or undo the random ornament arrangements of a toddler. Or, even better, I would have eventually shouted at him to “STOP!” or “QUIT DOING THAT!”

All he wanted to do was put up a Christmas tree. He gets so excited when he sees Christmas trees and points them out (all of them) every time we see one. It was then that I realized that we #nailedit this year without trying. Even the accompanying pictures we tried to take with said tree were great because it was us…doing what we do best.

Daddy rushing to get the three millionth picture I asked him to take and getting very little of the tree in the process. Completely uncooperative toddlers. And me trying to capture every moment.

I heard a Christmas song a few years back, and the song has since become one of my favorites.

“I knew I caught a glimpse of heaven’s love
As he thanked me and ran out
I knew that God had sent that little boy
To remind me what Christmas is all about…”
~ Alabama: “Christmas Shoes”

Sometimes, in the middle of regular life, God looks down and he smiles.  He takes imperfect moments and shows us what perfection really means.  It is those instances when you wish time would stand still.  It is those seconds you wish would last forever.  For this Christmas season I pray God sends each of you #nailedit occassions – occasions that make the holidays ordinarily extraordinary.