The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Dec 22

Dec 22 The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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Amy's Adventures, Mother of Boys

I LOVE Christmas! I always have and I pray I always will! My friend Cathy use to make fun of me and say it looked like Santa puked in my house! I am serious! I just can't help myself!

Even last year, when my mom was so sick and dying, Christmas brought me joy, but when mom died on December 29, I honestly thought, well there goes Christmas. My best friend died during the holidays. How will I ever be able to enjoy Christmas again?

You guys! I am happy to report I do still LOVE Christmas! Do you know why? Because it truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Sure I miss my mom, and yes I have cried a ton this holiday, but, with each tradition that we Berrys carry on, I get a little spark of magic. A little spark of faith. A spark of hope. A spark of joy. And most importantly a little spark of Love. And I know that is what my mom would want. She would want me to feel the magic and the love. She would not want me to wallow in my sadness. She would want me to live and carry on all our fun traditions.

So today I am going to share with you some of what we Berrys do to keep the magic alive. It all starts after thanksgiving when our elf, Felix, comes to visit. He always brings a pair of pajamas for the family as a little, "I am back!" The kids love it, especially Graeme!

My beautiful wreath my mom made me with a little touch of Graeme's art from his preschool years.

Once Felix makes his presence known, that is our signal that the decorations can go up! Trey handles the outside and I handle everything inside. This works best for our family. This has probably been the hardest thing for me this year. When I went up into the attic to start bringing Christmas down, the first thing I got was the wreath my mother was making for me when her water broke and she went into labor with me! Yup you heard me! This wreath is 47 years old and it is a labor of love that I will ALWAYS cherish! So that kind of froze me a bit. Thank God for good friends. My friend Sarah, happen to call when I was in my rut and I had a good cry and she came over and I knocked out Christmas with her guidance and love! For this I will forever be eternally grateful!

Once the decorations are up and December 1 hits we to participate in our favorite Berry tradition! Gumdrop Picking! My Dad even got to this year and he LOVES it! He actually was quite confused and amazed at the same time! But once it slowly settled into his noggin, he got it! And he LOVED IT! So you might be asking yourself, "What is gumdrop tree picking?" Let me tell you.

When Trey and I moved back to Dallas in 2005, we were amazed by all the AMAZING lights! At that time Will had just turned 4 and JP was almost 3 and we use to take them to look at lights often. Trey kept calling the multi color trees, "Gum ball trees." The next year, I got the idea to hide gum balls in my glove box and when we saw a tree, one of us would jump out and pick one or two. What we learned here was gum balls is not a good idea! Trust me, but gum drops! BRILLIANT! So we switched it to gum drop trees! The kids loved it and still do! Even the teenagers love it now! Disclaimer: we have set ALL kinds of rules and if you start this tradition, you will want to too. For instance, if it is a busy street, the tree is not magical. If the tree is close to a window or house, not magical. A big rule is: 3-5 trees only per night! Santa does not want you to get sick! Trees are not magical until December 1 and only until Christmas! You know in Texas they start putting lights up in October! So as you can see, you MIGHT have to make rules that conform to your family and your needs, but I promise this is a fun tradition! So for us now we pick at least one night when all 5 can go, we go in our PJ's and we have a ball! My teenagers might not think so, but someday they will look back and be glad! Heck they may carry on the tradition with their kids!

Another tradition we have is the North Park Santa. This tradition started with my sister Robin. She and her husband took their kiddos there and they are in there 20's and would you believe it is the same guy! So we use to fly home for the holidays and go to see what we call "THE REAL SANTA." Now we live here and guess what, SAME GUY! I have all kinds of pictures to prove it! WE LOVE HIM! I have to say it is not an easy process because he is famous! Now how it works, which is actually MUCH better than when Robin and Ralph did it, is I go get in line at 8:30 am on the day I want to take Graeme to see him. I get my number and head back when they say is a good time. So the tradition has turned into: Whatever day I decide, I go to the mall at 8:30. Get my number. Surprise the kids at school (now it is just Graeme as the bigs are in high school) and take him to lunch and to see Santa and bonus....You miss some school! Shhh.......don't tell! He loves it! I have even roped one of my dearest friends Shirley into the tradition! So it has kind of turned into our thing!

Our Elf tends to carry on a lot of our traditions. He does all kinds of things from bringing an advent calendar every December 1, toilet papering the tree, zip lining in the kitchen, sledding down the stairs, to sitting in the manger Christmas Day to remind us that Jesus is The reason for the season. After all, it is Jesus's birthday! The day we were given the gift of eternal life along with many other gifts! What a wonderful day Christmas is! This is why I still LOVE Christmas!

So you see, Christmas is such a wonderful time of year even in my darkest moments. I do miss my mom so much and sometimes I do feel guilty for enjoying the holiday magic, but I know she would want this for me. She use to get a kick out of our daily calls and the stories I would tell her of what we were doing so I know she is now too! I might not can call her to talk about it, but I do feel her with me at times. Not always, Lord do I wish it was always, but I feel her when I need to! And that is what matters!

This was my mom's absolute favorite picture of Graeme! I can hear her giggling still when she would look at this and saying, "That Graeme is something else!"

So if you find yourself in my shoes this holiday season....mourning the loss of a loved one, know they are with us. They are in our hearts and they want us to feel and experience all the faith, hope, love, and joy the holidays bring.