The Day After Thanksgiving

 While I appreciate the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday, it's the day after that I really look forward to.  Not for the sales or the shopping (we make most of the gifts we give), but for the decorating.  I don't do a full-out blitz because I enjoy putting up little touches here and there throughout the month of December, but putting up the Christmas tree is my favorite family tradition.  Pulling down the boxes and trying to remember where everything is may be a hassle (I still haven't found my extra Advent candles), but there's something about turning on my favorite Christmas music, setting up the tree, pulling out the ornaments, and plugging in those lights for the first time of the season that fills me with joy.  I wait with happy anticipation for weeks, knowing that the Advent Season is almost here.  

This year, I finally made the Jesse Tree ornaments I've been planning for the last three Christmases.  All those hours of cutting and hand stitching will be enjoyed one day at a time, as we go through the Scripture with Noah, pointing the way to the birth of Christ, and I chose to give that gift the day after Thanksgiving because of the significance of that day to me. 

Hopefully, when my children are older, they will regard the day after Thanksgiving with the same love that I do.  I want them to have happy memories of putting the tree up after supper and drinking cocoa, but most importantly, beginning the journey to The Manger.