Celebrate BIG!

Put down the to do list and step away from the wrapping paper. Turn on some Christmas tunes...you know, like James Brown or Cee Lo Green and just dance it out. When did Christmas become synonymous with stress? This should be a time for the Easter people to celebrate! Sometimes it feels like it is all or nothing. Either we have to be pious and straight faced about a virgin and a baby and a Savior drawn near or we embrace the glitter and excess and sugared goodies uninhibited.

 I think that these holidays can be holy days full of celebration. Big, loud, toe tapping celebration. Advent is meant not just to remind us of the first coming of Christ, but to point to the joyous day when our hero, the Savior, Jesus will return to rescue His own. It isn't joyous unless you know this truth, unless you embrace the baby, the cross and the Coming King.

If you know this truth then...proceed with the joy. Do it up BIG! 
{note: BIG joy can be super simple}

Kids do joy better than any other group of people. Get them in on the act. Fill your home with music. Obey Buddy the Elf and spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear. Fill your home with beautiful things. Smile like you have a secret...share that secret with someone who doesn't know {hint, hint, it is all about the Coming King}, give out big hugs or big air hugs (the flu is going around, boo), use way more glitter than should be legal, laugh until you snort at some point, stay up late watching a good Christmas movie, put a Christmas tree in every room, Griswold up the eaves and overhangs, cozy around a fire, eat popcorn and hot chocolate for supper, buy a big beyond reason gift for someone in desperate need---> Maybe something from this catalog, perhaps a life saving surgery for a child?

Go overboard with joy this season. 

Need some ideas? Need a good laugh? Need some more joy?
How about these adorable stocking holders! Pretty nifty!
Here is a guy on a buffalo...don't ask...just enjoy it for what it is. 
What about something from Lisa Leonard designs, gasp at the beauty!
Hand drawn joy from my dear friend Amy Davis!