I've always been a strictly after thanksgiving girl.

But here we are, early November, my yard is full of leaf piles for jumping and... a great big Santa with twinkling bushes behind.

Through the front door we don't yet have a Christmas tree, we probably will wait on that one, but we have the mistletoe hanging in the foyer. We have garland and lights over the mantle. We have carols playing in the kitchen. We have Santa and elf hats in rotation. And we've already started snuggling up for Christmas movies.

Maybe some would say I'm rushing the season.

But they'd be wrong.

I'm savoring it.

I'm soaking it in.

Because this thing is happening with my kids.

They're getting bigger... fast.

And when I start doing the math, adding up how many more holiday seasons we still have all together under one roof, I'm realizing the numbers are getting smaller.
But also, life is getting busier.

Have you lived a December as a parent of bigger kids??? When they were babies and toddlers, this beautiful season felt like it belonged to us. There was plenty of time for magic. But now - we're left to share this sweetest of months and all its tender sparkle with about 8 million other "big kid" commitments.

And I'm not a great fan of handing the magic over to become mayhem.

Especially when... especially when I'm realizing that there's just never going to be enough time.

So I may as well make some.

The rest of the neighborhood is still sprinkled with doorsteps full of jack-o-lanterns, but my walkway is lined with red and white lit candy canes.

And I promise my Thanksgiving people - we'll still give that day plenty of love and attention. But these sweet peas of mine... they're getting grown faster than my heart can keep pace.

I want to pick up my youngest and dance to Jiggle Bell Rock. And roll out cookies on the counter with my middle son, while he wears the cutest Christmas apron. And watch my daughter's attention to detail building a gingerbread house. And sip cocoa with my oldest while Bing Crosby croons Silver Bells in the kitchen.

There'll never be enough time. Fact. And the older they get, somehow the faster it moves.

So if I have to pull some of December into November to extend the days and minutes we have together in the twinkle and magic of Christmas, then so be it. I'll blow up a giant Santa on my front yard between raking up piles of leaves with the biggest smile on my face.

I'm not rushing the season.

I'm just trying to savor it.

And them... I'm trying to savor them.

You Are Loved - Emily Roussell