Confessions of this Gal's Sinful Heart

Year after year the holidays come and the holidays go.  Every year I stress, worry and get depressed thinking of what family drama to anticipate.  I stress over hosting or not, I stress if I've been fair and generous enough with gift giving.  I stress making sure my wrapping paper matches our Christmas decor.  For me the holidays are usually a time to stress. Last Christmas I blogged  "Dreaming of a White Christmas" .  A video confession of all that I do "wrong" at the holidays and how I fail to focus on Christ every year. This year with the need to finally have a "White Christmas", the Lord saw fit to use my situation to bring about some much needed changes in my holiday festivities.  Changes that can only come from a Christ-centered relationship. Although I confess, I did spend more than I had, and racked up some debt, this year has been radically different.  First I need to take you back a year.  Last year I decided to stand u...

Anybody else struggling to look forward to the holidays this year?  I admit that I have been.  I'm ashamed to say but every year the holidays have become harder to look forward to.  Having to make difficult decisions, missing lost loved ones, no funds, and something you look forward to taken away.  Having to choose which dysfunctional family you want to pass the time with.  Not fun. Last year, to have something more to look forward to at the holidays, I came up with a brilliant idea.  I decided that we would take a family vacation to Disney World the week before Christmas.  I planned a year in advance, I saved every penny I had, and made all our dining reservations 180 days prior.  By meticulously mapping out our vacation agenda it helped, for the most part, to take my mind off the impending gloom of the holidays.  However, the vacation did not go as I had planned, due to a financial crisis we had to take many things off the list and...