Those of you that know me, know that I LOVE Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. I love the lights, the music, the tree, the decorations, the cheer and everything else that goes with the holiday.

But for whatever reason this year was just kind of a blah year. Christmas came and went without much fanfare or anything. It was really disappointing to me. We had the lights and decorations up, we listened to Christmas music, but it just didn’t seem the same this year. I just felt like we went through the motions and did Christmas.

I don’t like that feeling. I feel like we missed out on what Christmas is supposed to be about. I was talking with Kimmy about it this afternoon as we were taking down the decorations, which is something I never want done until after New Year’s Day, and we were both expressing how it seems like we skipped Christmas even though we didn’t want to. We talked about some of the things that made it feel that way. I said that it felt like there was no build up or anticipation for Christmas Day. That is something that I am envious of in the liturgical churches, because they celebrate Advent. Whereas the more evangelical churches don’t do the whole advent thing. Other than at our Christmas Eve service there really wasn’t much about Christmas at my church. We didn’t really sing any traditional Christmas songs until Christmas Eve, except for one or two the Sunday before. I am sure that some of that is because the service the week before was canceled because of the heavy snow and they just moved what was supposed to be done at that service to the following week, but it was sad none the less.

So next year Kimmy and I decided that we as a family are going to get an Advent wreath and do Advent with our family even if our church isn’t doing it. Because we want to make sure that we don’t miss the anticipation and excitement of what we celebrate this season for. And next year we are going to be participating in the Advent Conspiracy, because we want to make sure we celebrate the birth of Jesus in the best way possible.

Next year I have a feeling that Christmas could be our best Christmas together since our first year together as husband and wife. And I am excited. For now I leave you with one of my favorite Christmas commercials.