Christmas – Kat's Eye View

It’s Finally Christmas Time!

For some, Christmas is not embraced as the icing on the cake that helps to end the year with a jolly “Ho Ho Ho”. Instead, it’s met with a grumbling “Bah-Hum-Bug”. Even these simple things can grow a Grinch’s heart and make a Scrooge smile.

It’s finally CHRISTMAS TIME! I’ve been looking forward to it since June…honestly since the last Christmas. I love this time of year! I love when the Autumn season comes because it is a prelude to the holiday season. I look forward to Halloween because it means that Practice Christmas, I mean Thanksgiving, is around the corner and I can work out any recipe kinks to have an enjoyable Christmas Dinner. The preparation of butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, onions, season salt, and cheese must be handled with the utmost care and perfection; or all could be lost. Could this be a bit dramatic? I’m sure it is, because that’s the kind of girl I am. In the nostalgic words of Popeye, “I am what I am”…. There is so much joy that comes this time of the year.

For some, Christmas is not embraced as the icing on the cake that helps to end the year with a jolly “Ho Ho Ho”. Instead, it’s met with a grumbling “Bah-Hum-Bug”. Not just because of bad Christmas experiences that have turned them into Scrooges or Grinches, but because CHRISTMAS IS EXPENSIVE!!!! The cost and length of your Christmas To-Do List can bring on stress and cause one to feel overwhelmed. Why you ask? Why? Because we want everything to be perfect and memorable! We want our Christmas Traditions to continue to be passed on. We want every Christmas to be the one that outshines the last one. We want our children to be amazed at all that Santa has brought for them. We want to impress and bring smiles to hardened faces. This inevitably requires money. Christmas is probably the most expensive time of the year. The groceries for dinner (including desserts), Christmas Trees, Lights and Decor for inside and outside the home, Christmas Pajamas (a fun extra), Christmas Cards, and Christmas Gifts all add up.

–Did you know that some people take out loans to have a Holly Jolly Christmas? I just found this out. I mean, yes the lights and decorations can still bring a since of awe and wonderment no matter the age, but I ain’t takin’ no loans out so people can “ooh and ahh” and not help with the light bill.–

But here’s the thing, you can’t allow all the pressures that come with Christmas to bring you down. You can’t allow this time of year to stress you out or turn you into a Grinch or Scrooge. Yes this time of year is expensive, so do what you can, and be grateful that you are able to do just that. Enjoy this time of year with family and friends understanding that it isn’t always the big things that bring the best memories. Sometimes the little things, like watching a Christmas movie every night or baking homemade cookies is all you need to bring on traditions and memories. Even these simple things can grow a Grinch’s heart and make a Scrooge smile. I’ve seen it happen. What can you do to have a Happy Christmas?

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Gone, but not forgotten on Christmas

The song ‘s declaration is indeed true because Christmas isn’t the same without your family around to share it with you. I can no longer run to them and see their happy faces during the holiday season. I can always think back to our last Christmas together, but it’s nothing like actually touching their warm skin and hearing their gentle voice as we talk over dinner and tell jokes.

This time of year truly is the most wonderful time of year. The “feeling of Christmas” is all around…just breathe it in AND avoid the news. Christmas seems better when you can spend it with the ones you love and care for. This creates more great memories. This year also brings with it memories spent with those no longer living close by, or that have passed away.

The other day I was listening to a song by a popular Rhythm and Blues group from the 70s, called the O’Jays. The song says, “Christmas just ain’t Christmas, Without the One You Love”. As I was singing along, I couldn’t help but to think about family and friends that are no longer here. I attempted to turn my thoughts elsewhere because I didn’t want to think about all of the loved ones I lost in the last two years and on. I’m still not able to think about them without my eyes “sweating”.

I will do my best to never forget those times. They may be gone, but they are definitely not forgotten. We can’t allow those memories to take away the joy this time of year brings with it.

Make the most out of this time with family that are still around. Let them know that you are grateful for them and that you appreciate all they do. Some of this may be an exaggeration of the truth, but let’s just say that we are “calling those things that be not, as though they were”. Sometimes when the time gets rough, they are the only ones you can rely on to be there for you.

Enjoy those walks down memory lane with them. Enjoy that uncle that makes you shake your head at what he wears, because he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. Enjoy that mother or father that continues to embarrass you with all that they say, because they are right and everyone else is wrong. Be grateful for the horrible food that your aunt, who doesn’t realize she’s lost her anointing to cook years ago, makes for the family. One day you are going to miss all of these people because one day they will not be there with you.

Family is the same no matter who or where you are. You didn’t pick your family, but you do the best you can to love and tolerate them, even if you don’t understand them. Especially if you feel they don’t understand you. Love on them while you still can. Smile as you remember those gone and those here. You may cry, but don’t forget to smile. Cherish the memories of yesteryear and continue to make new ones for the years to come.

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Featured Image from Rainforest Islands Ferry

A Divine Perspective 12: Christmas, A Recipe of Emotions

The holiday season brings about a recipe of emotions. Depending on what you prefer for this mixture, take about 5 cups of excitement, 7 cups of perfectionism, and 2 cups of stress. Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of “This is too much”, 1 Tablespoon of family getting on your nerves, and ½ a teaspoon of “Oh no, I forgot the…”. You may add or takeaway other ingredients and change measurements according to your taste.

Usually everyone that participates in this season or any holiday can understand. We want everything to be just right and we don’t want anyone to try to shake our dream of a perfect Christmas. “Who cares how much money we spend on decorations, lights, gifts, food, stocking stuffers!,” we say. Then empty bank accounts bring us back to reality or unexpected hospital stays because of stress. Don’t allow this season to erase how you have drawn Christmas in your head, but don’t make this into a fantasy because you are so busy trying to make this Christmas better than the non-fairytale Christmases of your past. Yes, enjoy this time with family and friends, but don’t get yourself worked up over it. Remember to be anxious for nothing…when you feel the burden of perfection coming on, pray for the Peace of God.

Keep your focus on who and what this season is truly about. The birth of Jesus, the Savior of this World and how he was born into it, to teach man-kind His ways, so that we might have a better life. Don’t allow the commercialism of Christmas to snatch your joy and add unhealthy pressure to this glorious holiday time. Don’t allow what you can not do, to get you down. Enjoy what you have and who you are with! May God Bless you and Keep you & Yours.

Philippians 4:6-7New King James Version (NKJV)

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

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Santa Isn’t the Only One Coming to Town

As the days of December seem to swiftly drift by, we are getting closer to the Big Day! Are you ready for it all that the day brings? Not only is Santa Claus coming to town, but for many, so is family! This means mental preparedness at the ready.

As the days of December seem to swiftly drift by, we’re getting closer to the Big Day! Are you ready for all the day brings? Not only is Santa Claus coming to town, but for many, so is family! This means mental preparedness at the ready.

These are people we love, but didn’t choose. They can bring joy and pain, sunshine and rain. They know how to push your buttons because they know you. Mom is still fussing over you and reminding you that “she knows more than you so listen to her”. Dad continues to encourage you with, “You know how your momma is”. Siblings don’t want to help out with anything because they are your siblings…. Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents talk about memories of past Christmases. The same stories you have heard all your life, but they are still enjoyable and you do look forward to them. This is the Christmas you have grown up having. This is how Christmas and the Holiday Season have always been for you; but now you are a married couple.

You now have family that comes with “for better or for worse”. You chose your spouse, but this means you also chose them…the in-laws! You have grown to love them, but they are not what you’re used to. They do things…differently. You have grown to love them, but there are things about them you are continuing to get used to. Hopefully they are making an attempt to get used to you and how you do things.

Now, for the Holidays, we have two moms trying to advise you on what you need to do to make that meal just right for the family, which means cooking or preparing food the way they do! They are battling over their turf (their child in the coupledom). They both know what’s best regarding everything, while the dads are just trying to stay out of it. Everyone wants and believes their way is best, while you, the married couple or single adult, are doing your hardest to show that you are an adult and you have it. Whatever “it” may be in this case.

The goal for this time of year is to survive. It may feel like “Survival of the Fittest”, because it’s really the Long Night. Unfortunately Winter has Come. You just have to be ready and remember to breathe….

Merry Christmas to You & Yours!!!

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Featured Image from the movie Home Alone and Twentieth Century Fox

Photo from Facebook page Winter-is-coming.net

The Christmas List

The Christmas List. Pretty much everyone has had experience with creating one. From the time you could write and read, you created a Christmas List to give Santa or to give your parents. You wanted the powers that be to know what you wanted for Christmas.

Years ago, as a child, all I wanted for Christmas was my 2 front teeth and a Cabbage Patch Kid Doll. I moved on to wanting a bike, the latest Nintendo game, or a Baby Alive. I also wanted the newest microscope set for my many experiments and scientific analyzing of any and almost everything. As a teenager, I grew into only wanting money for shopping, or shoes and clothes. Now as an adult, I am at the point that creating a Christmas List is a dreaded ordeal. It has become a challenge. I can’t always think of anything to want.

For some people in my family, I’m not allowed to not want them to buy me anything. This is exhausting, because now I have to create something to want, just to appease them. I feel that a Christmas List should be for things that you want or things you feel that you just have to have. Those things that, for the moment, you can’t seem to live without. You don’t realize that you can actually live without it, but it’s a current desire that you are excited about. I am now at the point in my life where I don’t desire anything that I can’t live without. If I want it, I can go and get it. Why wait till Christmas if I can get it when I want to? *Kanye Shrug*

giphy — Kanye West Shrugging GIF found on Google

Thinking about Christmas Lists is so bad, that I don’t even think about Christmas Lists from others until a week or two before Christmas. I don’t desire gifts anymore and I don’t think about actual presents. It’s not about presents for me anymore.

The present that I want to give is to make the Christmas Holiday memorable. I want the Christmasy-ness of this time of year to spread to all those I am sharing the season with. I want all to feel excited! I want to make this time enjoyable for the friends and family I am with, especially if I am hosting it. That’s the gift that’s on my mind, (but I do give actual gifts).

I want to sing my favorite Christmas Songs, play games, have snack attack, watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas, The Christmas Story, Home Alone (only the first one), The Grinch…, watch Hallmark, look at Christmas Lights, and drink hot cocoa! It all seems more fun if everyone participates in this. That’s it! I’ve got it! On my Christmas List, that’s what I want…For all those spending Christmas with me this year, to experience a Katherine kind of Christmas!!

Don’t allow the pressures of Holiday Shopping leave a damper on your spirit this Christmas Season.

Before

After

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It WAS beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Waking up this morning, I immediately looked out the window. “Wow, I thought. It really did snow”! I can’t lie, I was excited! The little girl in me began to emerge so I quickly got out of bed to go out into the snow.

My 2 pups had never seen snow, and were baffled at this “stuff” covering the grass. By now you could see the grass underneath, but there was still snow. I was hoping they would play in it, but they were confused.

There wasn’t much snow left to create a snowman, but I could make a few snowballs. I chose not to because I wanted the snow to last. Roofs all around were covered in snow. By now there is little evidence, but it came, we saw, and we screamed in delight, “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!!!!!”

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Photos courtesy of Me and the Huz-Band!!

A Divine Perspective 10: December is Finally Here!

Christmas Time is finally here! Where did the time go? No, never mind…let’s not turn back the hands of time. Let’s continue to move forward—>

Yesterday was a bit of a struggle between my huz-band and I while we were out shopping for more Christmas Décor. He, for some reason, decided that it would be okay to tell me no. How dare he! Everyone that truly knows me, is aware of the fact that I detest the word “No”! I didn’t want much in decorations, I just wanted to create a Winter Wonderland mixed with Santa’s Workshop mixed with Classic Christmas infused with Greenery and Holly Berries? I haven’t found any “Away in a manger, no crib for a bed” decorations that I like or look authentic enough to represent Christ and his mommy, so I don’t have that yet (wink wink).

What I’m saying is, I WANT IT ALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!! I understand why he felt he had to tell me no. I mean there is a possibility that I can have the tendency to maybe possibly go a little overboard with shopping, but it is for a good cause…Christmas! But then again, I really don’t want to go hungry because of the hypnotic powers of the glittery, sparkly, holiday cheer of red and green, even for Christmas. He has to bring me back to reality every now and then to remind me of what this holiday is truly about.

This entire season needs to be brought back to reality…we often forget that the true purpose is to remember that our Lord and the Savior of this world came to earth to become Flesh, so that he could teach us His ways, and die on a cross so that we could be set free from hell, including the hell we can experience on earth. Remember that the Elf on the Shelf, Santa Claus, Frosty, and Hallmark are not the reason for the season…Jesus is. In all that you do during this time with family and friends don’t forget to take some time to remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Easter, the 2nd Christmas

It’s that time again! Pastel colors are everywhere. New nests are being made for new bird families. The scent of freshly bloomed flowers are in the air; along with the frightening buzz of bees and wasps. (Maybe it’s just me) The “tormentuos” sounds of sneezes from me and all of my fellow allergy sufferers as pollen and ragweed dance in the beautiful bright rays of the sun. Ahhh, this is spring. The season that brings us Easter. As the weather warms up I have memories of dying eggs and the invisible crayon that added designs. Memories of being allowed to again where white and practicing my Easter speech specially written by my mother. When entering any grocery store, one can not help but be reminded of Easter when seeing the grey aisles filled with spring colors of various shades of greens, blues, pinks, purples, and yellows on the Easter baskets. As eye catching as these baskets may be, it’s what’s inside that truly matters.

These baskets are filled to the brim with goodies. There’s more than just candy, plastic eggs, and colorful grass in these baskets. They are teeming with basketballs, footballs, water guns, jump ropes, baby dolls, army men, Disney character toys, clothing items, and hair items. Growing up, I was content with real eggs and Easter bunny shaped chocolate bars that I placed inside of my Easter Basket. It did not come already prepared for me with gifts I hadn’t received for Christmas or my birthday. Now it seems as if Easter is Christmas #2. I didn’t know the Easter Bunny and Santa were related, but apparently, I was incorrect. The other day at work, a co-worker was searching online to purchase something for her daughter’s phone. I was thinking that maybe her child’s birthday was coming, but I eventually found out that the gift was to be placed in her daughter’s Easter basket. I then asked, “When did Easter become like a second Christmas?” There was no response. I hope she didn’t think I was being sarcastic. This has been a question on my mind for a while now and I thought she knew, since she was a mother. Do kids even dye eggs anymore? Are real eggs still being used or just the plastic eggs with the money inside? This brings me to my point…The true focus of Easter is no longer at the forefront.

Easter has sadly become a time of the year where the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus is ignored. The media attempts to discuss Jesus. The Ten Commandments is shown on television, although I don’t understand what that movie has to do with Easter. Is it the Bible thing because that’s all I can think of. You begin to see more of the “Who was Jesus” type of documentaries on network television or certain cable channels, but many also attempt to disprove Jesus as the Savior of all Mankind. Of course churches do what they can with reminding all about the message of Easter with plays and special services to reach those that would probably never attend. Many people attend their church or visit a church with their family. Hopefully, they are focused more on the message and not just on how *so fresh and so clean they look.

The things mentioned above have become a tradition. It is imperative that we keep in mind that Easter is celebrated not because of Spring, but because Jesus died on a cross and on the third day he was resurrected. He rose from the grave with the power over life and death. The Power of the Cross was and is for the world, not just for the church. All because He Loves You! He died for your sins. He forgave you before you even were born to commit the sin. Easter is not just a day to get together with one’s family. It’s not just a day to bestow your child with gifts and new clothes. Easter is not just a day to show up to church with your family to show off your new Easter clothes. I am in no means trying to say that being with family, buying toys, or buying new clothes is wrong, just don’t allow those things to replace the true reason for Easter. Even if you don’t believe this happened, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.

(John 3:16- For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in him should have everlasting life.)

*Outkast

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