Tinsel & Glitter

Timing is everything they say.

Like a snowy white Christmas.

Some years we get one,,, and some we don’t.

The holidays.

Do you make big plans to skate through them like me?

This year I had ideas for spectacular crafts and I plotted a unique shopping trip and tore out festive recipes from magazines with the very best intentions.

Then before I knew it time got away, life got even busier, and I have come to accept that it makes more sense to simply slow down and glide.

Enjoy the season.

Stress less.

No I haven’t gotten around to making those fancy baubles I saw on Pinterest.

And as I watched my sons delicately hang each carefully selected ornament on a tree branch, I realized our collection of bulbs and birds and crosses and homemade trinkets from their elementary school years are still just as breathtaking now as they were every Christmas before.

I’m finding comfort in familiarity and tradition and letting things be.

Holiday boxes of stuff brought up from the basement hold sweet memories of people and places and moments from the past we might otherwise forget if we didn’t bring them out to display and remind us.

Who cares anywho if hand drawn gift tags aren’t perfect?

Or that coordinating ribbons are still not strung on with care?

They will be ripped off in one fell swoop along with the wrapping paper at 6 in the morning anyway.

And I don’t regret making them either.

I’ve never had so much fun drawing outside the lines…

… or scribbling and chatting and laughing with my sons like we did that night.

And while trying to capture the perfect camera shot day-after-downcast-day these past few weeks, low lighting will just have to do.

It’s the season for billowy clouds where we live.

Snap the picture and move on.

I have come to cherish beautiful Christmas cards, too.

When an exceptional one shows up in our mailbox — so pretty it deserves a frame — I take a moment and place it behind glass for display on the mantel for all to see.

Beautiful and free.

Yes, please.

The other day my oldest son had his own idea for wrapping gifts in brown paper then tying each with a string. He likes the old-fashioned plain parcel look.

He’s become the household gift wrapper.

My fancy-glossy-pretty-paper-self decided not to scoff at his suggestion and let him run with it.

And guess what?

His plain packages mixed with last year’s colorful wrapping paper work just fine. It makes me smile to see his creativity under the tree.

I’m finding that my kids have really good ideas about feathering the nest.

It’s been eye-opening to give them full reign to decorate this Christmas and see what they come up with.

But what I’ve truly come to understand amidst all the hoopla leading up to Christmas is what’s written on the bottom of a globe.

Can you see part of it printed right there below the Christmas tree turned cross with the crown adorning it?

“God’s real truth shines through when you strip away all the tinsel and glitter…”

So when I’m caught up in decorating and shopping and baking and crafting and eating I never want to forget.

May I never forget.

If you have time and a little batting on hand and you’re in the mood… here’s how to make simple, inexpensive snow trees.

Stress-free.

Promise.

Draw and cut 4 to 5 square paper templates measuring from 5 inches down to a half inch.

Cut about 6 to 8 batting squares from each template and stack in separate piles.

Once stacked, decide if the tree is the height you like — add more squares if you prefer your tree taller.

Separate piles and turn cut sheets on point until corners form a star.

Hot glue each sheet within the set to one another.

When all sets have been glued, attach together with hot glue and build your tree.

Top with glittery star and display on top of a wide candlestick, pedestal, small plate or round wooden disk.