Are you Ready for Christmas?

Are you ready for this wonderful holiday to begin?

I don't feel like I am! I've got packing left to do. All my presents left to wrap. Dishes to clean. Floors to be vacuumed. Dinner's to be made. Yikes! It's all coming to fast!!!!

But is that what this season is really all about? Of course not, we all know that. It's about Jesus, after all it's in the name, Christmas. It's the Sunday school, automatic answer. Whats Christmas all about: JESUS!!

But what does that mean? How do we celebrate his birth? Should we instead of leaving cookies out for Santa leave a birthday cake and a little toy truck out for Baby Jesus? Mmmm mabye..but I don't think so.

Is it enough to simply acknowledge the reason for the season and then go about our day opening presents and eating turkey. I don't think so. We need to be doing more.

So how does this play out?

One thing I *intended* to do was to get an advent devotional. A a month long devotional dedicated to preparing your heart for this special Holiday. I got the devotional, however my time got eaten up by work goblins, homework goblins, and being lazy goblins. But next year I plan on being on top of my devotional *We'll see*!

Another thing that my Hubby and I do is our very first Christmas tradition. We borrowed this idea from his parents *Thank You*. We got a cross from our Christian bookstore that has the story of Jesus on it. We have it hung in our living room and on Christmas morning we will read it together and start our Christmas morning off right with God's story fresh in our minds.

I know that these are not the most amazing mind blowing ideas! But It's been on my mind a lot lately! And I am definitely up to suggestions ;)

I have also been thinking a lot about Christmas & Easter. The two big Christian holidays. I really want to write a devotional that starts the week of Thanksgiving and goes until the week of Easter. The devotional would start with Praising our Lord for all he has done, move into remembering his birth and his wonderful life and move onto His entire purpose for coming to earth: His death and subsequent Resurrection. If there is already a devotional like this, please let me know so I don't write something useless ;)

My challenge to my self and you if you want, is to stretch the Christmas season. This should not be the one day a year that we dwell on his birth and life. Then four months later dwell on his death for one day. We need to daily remember and be in his word. I am not the best at this and many times I have been much better than I am now. But I want to challenge myself to really dive back into daily scripture readings and devotionals. It is essential for a Christian walk and should be something that no Christian is without.

What are some of your Christmas traditions? Christ-centered or just fun (Sometimes it is good to just plain have fun and celebrate being with our friends and family).