fake it 'til you make it

I love Christmas. But this wasn't always the case.

I used to dread the holiday. It wasn't really much but sadness to me. I guess it started for the most part when my mom died when I was 10. I missed my mom so much, that there just wasn't much to be happy about. As I got older, I lost more of my family-- well, lost them emotionally. Christmas kind of became something I just "got through".

Once I met HOF, I felt like he deserved better. So, I decided to pretend to like Christmas. (He knew I was pretending. I wasn't trying to fool him or anything.) I decided to fake it 'til I make it.

So, I started to really pretend I loved Christmas. We would bake cookies and all that stuff. And you know what? By the second year, I didn't hate it. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it anymore. And by the third year, I kind of liked it. And now, I love it!! I just love Christmas. It is such a magical time of year.

We put up all our Christmas stuff today. (Except for the outside decorations- we will do that after Thanksgiving.) I will start posting pictures of everything after Thanksgiving, as well. We watched Christmas cartoons and made some Christmas cookies, too. It was such fun!!

I think people get caught up in the material parts of Christmas and the stress and forget to focus on the beauty. It is so magical and special. Try to take time to enjoy all the little moments. People can get so rushed and worried and stressed. I try not to worry about getting everything done, but instead focus on enjoying what I am doing. And everything seems to get done in the end.

This made a lot of sense in my head-- I feel as if I'm not saying it right.

I've applied this fake it 'til I make it theory a lot in my life. And-- it works.