Imperfection is Beautiful

A guest post:

We put up our Christmas tree last night. Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love the decorations, the smells, the beauty of it all. To me Christmas is magical, it is the time to celebrate God's gift of love to us through His Son, Jesus. My parents did a wonderful job in making Christmas magical, not just because we were given gifts, but because of the time we were able to spend together as a family. The lead up to and the traditions of Christmas are something I will always tressure.

As I have grown up, I have turned into a perfectionist and the older I get (maybe it's the more children I have), I crave quiet, organization of my life. So last night, I wrangled all the kids to the car after church so we could go decorate the tree. After all three were buckled, I hear from the two year old, "I need to go toilet!" Amazing the hold a toilet training child has over you and how fast you move when you hear these words. Ryleigh was a this point losing the plot because she wanted to eat dinner, so I called in help from Brett to take the older two toilet and I opened a jar of baby food and fed Ryes in the car seat. It was enough to get us home.

At home, Raegan refused to get out of the car, Ryleigh began hollering for more food, and Rhys was pleading for a drink of water. After extracting the two year old and giving the baby a spoon of food in between tasks, I found a Christmas CD and put it on. Then I opened the ornament box. I love to look through the ornaments and remember who gave them to me and the memories I have of the gift giver. So as we pulled out the ornaments I tried to pass on these memeories to my children.

They were really good at listening at first and loved when I would pull out one that was theirs. Toward the end it got a little chaotic. Instead of savoring pulling out one ornament at a time, it became a free for all of pulling ornaments out of the boxes, dropping tissue paper and other packaging where ever it fell and placing ornaments on the trees. It was LOUD! The CD was not blarring but added to the noise. Raegan would open an ornment and say, "Oh my goodness! Look!" Rhys had taken any ornments that were animals and started playing with them under the tree using his imagination to create some story. Ryleigh was starting to fuss again because she was tired and wanted her night time milk and bed.

So finally every last ornament (even the ones that aren't that pretty or cute) were out on the tree and it was time to plug it in. The lights, that I weren't sure were in proper working order, but had been assured would be fine, wouldn't come on! I was gutted! It was supposed to be the "magical moment".... the moment when after all the chaos and noise, the children would stop in quiet wonder and stare at the tree. I admidt I was a bit grumpy then getting the children off to bed.

This morning, I got up with just Ryleigh and we were sitting on the floor looking at the tree. For most people it will look like an odd tree. Lots of ornaments are towards the bottom and sometimes there are even two ornaments per branch. But, as I sat contemplating the tree this morning, I realized the beauty of this tree is in its imperfection. My children had a blast decorating that tree last night. They loved seeing the ornaments from my babyhood and childhood and they loved discovering the ornaments that mommy bought for them when they were "still in my tummy". For Rhys and Raegan last night WAS magical. So now when I look at the tree this year, I will remember I have given them a bit of Christmas magic and this is the MOST beautiful Christmas tree I've ever seen!