Christmas: This is No Time to Whisper

Our house is officially bursting with Christmas. I love seeing little festive reminders of the most wonderful season of the year gracing each room. A bouquet of evergreens in the bedroom, a pine scented candle in the bathroom, advent candles on the table, and of course the beautiful Christmas tree as the focal point of our living area; they all cry out,

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST,

AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOODWILL TOWARD MEN!

Our little decorations loudly declare the glories of Christmas, and Christmas is a good thing to shout about! Christmas is about more than a baby being born in a barn. It is about God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, becoming human. The incarnation. God the infinite, reducing Himself to finite man. The spiritual becoming material, flesh and blood.

To quote Doug Wilson, "The one who spoke the galaxies consented to have His diapers changed."

And through His birth, death, and resurrection, He redeemed His creation.

Without His birth, there would be nothing in which to rest our faith and our hope.

But He was born. In a stable. And the Word became flesh.

This is huge.

So, it is good and well that we make a big deal out of this holiday! It is fitting to have material reminders of the most material happening in the history of our world. God becoming flesh. Something that could be touched, held, seen.

So, we decorate our house, and do so robustly. And we eat chocolate. Lots of chocolate. And we sing at the top of our lungs.

Chalkboard!

The Christmas gospel has been declared in our home for awhile now. Since I hosted the brunch on the first of December, we took full advantage of the excuse to get ready a little earlier than normal! (Although, if you knew how early I used to decorate for Christmas in high school, you'd think the week after Thanksgiving is pretty good for me! My parents actually made a rule that I wasn't allowed to decorate until after my birthday.... which is in the middle of October. haha!)

Since we've been enjoying the decor for a few weeks, the tree has definitely started showing signs of... shall we call it love?

My bead garland is a bit wonky, and the majority of ornaments have migrated up (or made their way into the basket of "ornaments awaiting repair"), but for the most part it's managed to withstand running jumps, couch cushion warfare, and rambunctious children crawling beneath it and around it. It's still a festive centerpiece in our home, and is absolutely magical at night.

Christmas cheer can be found all over the house! 

I made my very first fresh garland...

I still haven't taken the pom-poms down from the brunch, and while I originally planned to, they're a fun addition to the decor, and coordinate nicely with the lovely advent calendar Grammie sent the boys...

A splash of red in the kitchen...

Nativity on the short bookshelf...

The boys love to play with it! It's ceramic, and I'm shocked at how gently they pick up the pieces. It's like they know it's something special.

Then there's my lovely blue mason jar gracing my desk in my room, displaying a bunch of arborvitae and a red ribbon...

The boys' room features a decorated garland this year... 

Last year I had a miniature tree set up with all of our childhood ornaments Riley and I had collected over the years. This year, since the boys often love to play in (read: destroy) their room by themselves, I draped this garland above their closet door, so they can still have the cheerful blinking lights without the risk of breaking ornaments. (Or, more importantly, the risk of Mommy having to re-hang them all every single day!!)

And lastly, the living room is very festive, especially when it's actually picked up!

The cork board you see hanging to the left of the front door usually hosts colorings the boys draw or the most recent batch of birthday cards, but it will be packed full of Christmas cards by the end of the season! (How fun!)

But, while it's peaceful and cheery when the room is tidy, there's a real sense of wonder and joy that comes from boys and toys sprawled out on the floor...

Christmas with children old enough to get giddy about it is so much fun.

We're shouting the joys of Christmas loudly over here. I hope to hear you joining in the chorus!

Happy Christmas!

XO