Tis the Season

What is it about this time of year?  Somehow, it has the ability to create an overtone to the days and weeks that lead up to Christmas... you find yourself immersed in the beauty of everything.  There's that familiar feeling in your stomach that tells you it's close.  The crisp fall air in your nose, the leaves changing color as if someone came by and painted over the green they once were with gold, amber and red.  When I look out the window I'm amazed at all of these creations.  I often wonder what thought process went into making all of it.  When God decided to create, say trees for instance, obviously for their oxygen purposes, but then the beauty that went along with it.  How they tower over you, and seem to know things.  Some of them turning bright with the autumn and seeming to sleep the winter away, their leaves on the ground.  The powerful way that a fir tree can ascend to more than 100 feet with ease, teasing a climber to go ahead and dare his way to the top, all the while keeping watch through the cold months, the true keeper of the forest.
The air moves from crisp to frozen, turning the ground to stone.  Snow comes next falling quietly over the meadows and roads.  If you listen closely, you can hear it gently meet the ground, the sound slightly scolding as if to say "shhhhhhh".  When it falls at night, you'll see the reflection of the street lamps on the flakes as they follow the stream of light down.  The moon meets it there and the snow replies as if to say it's settling in to stay awhile.
I love going home for Christmas...if I'm lucky it will snow while I'm there.  It's nostalgia.  If you could bottle it, you could sell it easily.  I really think this is what most people are looking for as they start their yearly routines.  They are chasing their childhood or trying to create a better one for their children.  Stringing lights and decorating the tree, the customary practices.  Baking cookies and bread, the accustomed fragrances of pine and apple cider.
It's not about presents, it's the feeling...I think this is what God really intended us to experience while also remembering the real meaning of the season.  Giving gifts to each other is just a metaphor for showing love...the way He shows love to us daily.  There is this awful commercial I saw on TV, and these shoes are talking and one is telling the other how awful of a friend she is because of the gift she got her.  While it's meant to be funny, it takes the commercialization of Christmas to a whole new level.  It kind of made me sad.  Sure, it's totally normal to laugh when you get that weird gift from your distant relative with all the cats (true story), but it's just rude to bash someone for it...such audacity to suggest that you deserve more. 
Don't forget to look outside your window and acknowledge the gifts we take for granted every day. 
What are your traditions?


Much Love
T♥