Christmas Eve

Last night we took the kids over to Kelly and Debbie's house to do our eve of Christmas Eve tradition of decorating Christmas sugar cookies for Santa. I love it. The awesome piles of frosting covered by awesome piles of sprinkles and candies. hahaha It was a great night.
Today is crazy. I still have two children's worth of wrapping plus what the kids got for each other to wrap. I always have the goal to wrap as I buy and stay on top of it all. It never works and then I end up staying up too late on Christmas Eve to finish it. Lame. One of these years I promise I will wrap everything by Christmas Eve and then be able to just relax and enjoy Christmas for all it's worth. (I know it's hypocritical to be blogging instead of wrapping right now but don't judge me...)
I will admit I have been a bit of a Scrooge this year. My Christmas spirit has taken a back seat and I am just not into it at all. And by at all I mean... sick of it. Sick of present buying. Sick of trying to make sure I stay in budget. Sick of trying to make everyone happy. Sick of all the holiday bull crap that the media feed us and talk us into thinking of Christmas as this commercialized holiday. We might as well refer to it as xmas because where is the Christ in Christmas? I haven't felt it at all this year except for a little moment at Temple Square - which was a miracle that we got to go and I'm sooo glad we did! I'm seriously finally realizing why my mom would get so mad when we were growing up and threaten every year to cancel "Christmas" and all we would do would be service. She would threaten that the only presents we would get would be ones we would go buy for other people. I admit this is a little extreme. Especially when children are young like mine still are...but is it really??? Isn't the Christmas season supposed to be about "good will toward men" and remembering our Savior and His life which He gave to save our own? He gave His entire life to service...so is it so much to ask to keep our present giving to a minimal and our spirit of service much, much greater? I don't think so. Next year is going to be different in the Barrett household. And every year afterwards as well. I vow to renew my Christmas spirit, and instill the correct meaning of Christmas in my children.
Glad I got that off my chest. I'm off to relax and enjoy this Christmas Eve and especially enjoy Christmas on the Sabbath tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all will remember the true meaning of Christmas and keep it all year long!