He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

We have a stack of Christmas story books.  Every year when Thanksgiving day ends, we switch gears to Christmas holiday season.  We go get our tree from the tree farm.  I haul out all the decorations and Christmas music CDs and we start making our Christmas lists.  We enter in to the season of Advent and purpose ourselves to focus on the birth of Christ more than the commercial holiday....but you guys....it's just so hard.  It is hard to not get sucked in to the buying and decorating and hoping and excessiveness.....it is hard to not want to give and spend and give and splurge and give some more....I get swept up in the wave of it all.  The Christmas books are sweet and simple and many of them remind me to focus on what really matters.  Sitting beside my beautiful tree with twinkly lights summons me to sit and feel peace......the nativity scenes I set around the house remind me that it is about Jesus.....so why do I still want to spend and compare and plan and stress over it?  Wh

Last year at this time I was beginning to dread the end of life with Claire living at home.  We were talking about college and celebrating and grieving the last home football game, the last dance competition, etc.  Not gonna lie....it was heart-breaking.  I have figured out how to add birdies to my nest but Claire was the first one to teach me how to let them leave the nest.  Her senior year of high school was as bittersweet as it gets.  Dark chocolate mixed with Himalayan sea salt......ice cream topped with cantaloupe.....you get the picture.  good and bad, sweet and not, mixed feelings.  I cried many tears trying to wrap my brain around her not being here every day.  I didn't want her to stay forever.  I wanted her to spread her wings and fly.  I wanted to see what she could do with what we had given her.  But I really, really didn't want her....to go.  She did go.  She didn't go far but she did go.  She is mostly gone.  I tried not to text her and call her for silly