Dancing with Daffodils

Hallelujah! Every outside commitment I have is done, my husband finished up his work project, the kids are off from school and all I have left to be ready for Christmas is a bit of wrapping and cooking a turkey. To say I am relieved is an understatement. Now that the good but busy-ness of Christmas is done, I feel more peaceful and like I can take a quiet moment to really feel the spirit of it all.  Today as I was making cinnamon rolls and listening to Christmas music, I felt such gratitude for my parents. There is something about Christmas that always makes me think back to childhood and those special years of celebrating as a kid with my sisters and parents. My mom is a wonderful cook and she makes the best cinnamon rolls in the world. They are different than most people's cinnamon rolls and take a special touch to make them turn out just right. The first half of mine came out well but the second half were near perfect and I had this moment of joyful success! She has taught me...

It is Christmas time, a time I love and from which comes many of my fond childhood memories. However, as an adult, some of the magic has certainly been lost in the work of it all. This has only been emphasized this year because my husband is working a ton of overtime and between that and heavy church responsibilities, he has hardly been home in three weeks and has two more of this to go. Then the last week or so he has been really sick so even when he was home he was sleeping. It has been a bit lonely doing almost all of the decorating, gift planning, baking, party planning, as well as general life/family management with little support (not by his own choice).  The most difficult feeling of all is that of just not being enough. More times than I can count the past few weeks I have put my head in my hands and thought, I can't make this all happen. It isn't even in the commercial part of Christmas that many would say to cut out in order to simplify our lives. We have filled our...