Welcome to our Count Down to Christmas Balsam Hill Blog Hop and thank you for stopping by!!

If you’ve missed visiting her lovely blog, click this logo below to see how DeDe and her family count down the days until Christmas!

Sometimes

Christmas traditions

take on so much more significance for  me that

they can eclipse the truer, more spiritual meaning of the day

itself

Layers

of tradition can  weigh down, even

obfuscate the  authentic depth that could be found in Christmas, not

just for that one  day,  but the more honest approach that we could carry forward for each day in our

lives

As

 the Grinch discovered

it came without ribbons, it came

without tags, it came without packages, boxes or

bags

life has a way of upending itself and this year my heart has been seeking  new

ways of looking at Christmas, by mentally reducing it to just another

Hallmark Holiday { which wasn’t a fair valuation } to

realizing that I simply had always placed far too

much significance  on expecting Christmas

to unwrap itself in exactly

the same

way

I’m not sure how and when I decided that tradition is always a good thing

and why precise repetition of events, down to the last details of

sugared shortbread and sliced Morning Wife Saver,

were requisite for the “perfect”

celebration

When my now adult children were at their smallest, 

we were gifted  a lovely chalkboard where

we would mark the days

until Santa’s sleigh

arrived

They’ve grown, we’ve grown and while our paths still carry us  in

the same direction, we now live in separate homes, and so I

seek comfort knowing for certain that their “home” will

always be tucked safe in my heart

and mine carried snug in

theirs

this year will be the beginning

of a new sort of

Christmas

for

us

One where the values of kindness, charity, community

fellowship and love will be far more important

than any breakfast, present,  turkey

dinner or Tradition

ever could

be

Balsam Hill graciously invited me to join this Blogger’s Christmas tour and asked that I share one of my

Christmas traditions with you, sending me a beautiful Counting Down to Christmas Board.

I love it’s pretty rustic look and I thought it would be

lovely on my new front porch, icy cold

and glittery snow

dusted

Now the count down is on for a new sort of

Un-Traditional Christmas

and I am so excited

to see how it will

unfold

Expecting the unexpected means that just about everything is possible and anything can happen.

Setting certainty aside allows much needed space for more creative and memorable life

experiences to be made, gathering both familiar and new loved ones to share in

an un-traditional celebration, I believe goes straight to

where the heart of the true spirit

of  Christmas lives, in

love

Tomorrow Angela from Number Fifty-Three will share with you her family’s traditions, you’ll find even more beautiful Count Down to Christmas inspiration!! She loves to use thrifted items to create an eclectic mix of vintage, modern country and rustic glam!

Ever,

Smidge