How Does Christmas Feel?
I was talking with Paul the other day about how it just doesn't "feel" like Christmas. To my mind Christmas "feels" like a constant chill in the air and a scent of smoke rising from the neighbors chimneys. It "feels" like a morning when Jack Frost has come to visit and the ground is blanketed in a nice little crunch of frost. It "feels" like a cloudy sky and snowflakes falling to the ground.
This feeling is something that my mind and heart have learned to associate with how Christmas feels. For the last many years "feeling" all of these things have come to mean Christmas is almost here. I say they are learned because as a child growing up in Southern California this is not what Christmas felt like.
Instead the days, weeks & months leading up to Christmas felt a little more like Autumn than Winter. Where playing outside was still a fun and desirable activity, even without a coat, hat and gloves. This is more the kind of Christmas feeling we have experienced this year in Arizona.
Recently our family spent a Saturday doing some shopping in near by Bullhead City, AZ which was followed by a stop at the Colorado River for a picnic of pizza and bread sticks and the rest of the afternoon playing along the riverbank enjoying what an Arizona Christmas "feels" like.
The kids had a great time collecting rocks . . .
. . . running their fingers in the sand . . .
. . . and of course throwing rocks in the river.
We had the shoreline to ourselves and it was a great way to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season.
For a few hours I forgot that Christmas was only weeks away, because in my mind it didn't "feel" like Christmas anymore. But then again it did "feel" like Christmas. It felt like the part of the Christmas season where you get to enjoy time together with those you love the most and take a moment from the hectic schedule of life to focus on what really matters the most . . .FAMILY; and add in a moment to reflect on the blessing of an eternal family. Which is a gift given to us from a loving Heavenly Father through his Son, whose birth we remember each Christmas Season.
This feeling is something that my mind and heart have learned to associate with how Christmas feels. For the last many years "feeling" all of these things have come to mean Christmas is almost here. I say they are learned because as a child growing up in Southern California this is not what Christmas felt like.
Instead the days, weeks & months leading up to Christmas felt a little more like Autumn than Winter. Where playing outside was still a fun and desirable activity, even without a coat, hat and gloves. This is more the kind of Christmas feeling we have experienced this year in Arizona.
Recently our family spent a Saturday doing some shopping in near by Bullhead City, AZ which was followed by a stop at the Colorado River for a picnic of pizza and bread sticks and the rest of the afternoon playing along the riverbank enjoying what an Arizona Christmas "feels" like.
The kids had a great time collecting rocks . . .
. . . running their fingers in the sand . . .
. . . and of course throwing rocks in the river.
We had the shoreline to ourselves and it was a great way to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season.
For a few hours I forgot that Christmas was only weeks away, because in my mind it didn't "feel" like Christmas anymore. But then again it did "feel" like Christmas. It felt like the part of the Christmas season where you get to enjoy time together with those you love the most and take a moment from the hectic schedule of life to focus on what really matters the most . . .FAMILY; and add in a moment to reflect on the blessing of an eternal family. Which is a gift given to us from a loving Heavenly Father through his Son, whose birth we remember each Christmas Season.
So perhaps it really does "feel" like Christmas.
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