Making room for Christmas

Those of you who know me well realize how truly compulsive I can be about certain things.:-) Not that I'm proud of it, but it's who I am. Clutter is definitely one of those things. It drives me simply batty. I love clean, bare surfaces and wide open spaces. For me it's peaceful and calming. I'm constantly cleaning out and sometimes even discarding things that I'll need to re-acquire at later date.

This can be particularly problematic at Christmas. The thought of making room for all those decorations pains me. If my husband and children didn't take over our decorations would be small scale, very small scale. Don't even get me started on the gifts! I instituted a mandatory pre-Christmas cleanout several years ago. While many children make a long Christmas list, mine face a different decision, which possessions to part with first. Who needs twenty Barbie dolls without enough clothes for them all and a puzzle with a missing piece anyway? See in my mind there just isn't room for it all. Crowding more in just simply isn't an option. I'll admit that even as the gifts are opened I'm already thinking and just where am I supposed to put that?

One of the girls made a great point this week as I was urging them to begin the annual purge. She said, "Mom, I think you should be less worried about making room in the house and more concerned about making room in your heart." Ouch, but so true!
I'm forever reminding them that Christmas is about Christ, not presents. Yet in truth I'm the one who's focused intently on the material things and losing out on Christmas joy in the process.

So... I've decided not to follow through on the big clean up this year and the decorations are all up! Even though we'll be 1,000 miles north come the big day. I'm going to focus on my own personal clutter instead. Yikes, that is a daunting task!