The most wonderful time of the year???

It's really no secret that I love Christmas time and always have. Like, I obsessively love Christmas. I love making and buying presents for people. I love decorating the house. I love Christmas movies and baking and lights and Christmas trees.

The past few years though, I have noticed that I have not enjoyed it as much as I have in the past. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so busy that I'm too stressed to enjoy it or if it just all seems like a little more of a hassle or what. This year has been more fun since Addison is really starting to know about Santa and Christmas. I hope she grows up to love Christmas time too.

So, the other thing this has made me think of is that Christmas is about family and for the past year (or a little less I guess) I have really been wanting our family to grow and that is just not happening like I want it to and it seems to frustrate me more right now than usual. Christmas time is always hard on people who have experienced loss, grief, challenges etc.

At work we tell our foster parents to except the unexpected from the foster kids in their homes as they all deal with being away from family differently. Some of them have happy memories of holidays with their parents but some of them have memories of sad and scary holidays. The kids can be angry, apathetic, sad, or grateful and happy (or all of those things).

This time of year brings out so many different emotions and unfortunately I think sometimes we get caught up in the joyful-ness (not a bad thing) and forget about people around us who may be hurting: people who lost a family member this year, are going through a divorce, have health struggles etc. 

So - thanks for letting me ramble a little bit. Praying that everyone has a blessed Christmas and new year!