The end of February

Every Christmas I redo the entire look of our house with Christmas decorations-some Christmas specific, and others just wintery looking-like my snowmen. My thought is that I can leave my snowmen up until winter is over because they are winter decorations, not Christmas. But I also leave up my "winter" lights on the mantel with my "winter" greenery; and my "winter" lights outside on the play set. These are simply multi-colored or white lights; no red and green.


This year I had great hopes for kids playing on our play set with the lights on at night, but alas, the rains came. Our yard has been soggy since December! But I got tired of not using my lights, so the other night, between rainstorms, I let the boys play outside in rain boots or old shoes. Finally my plan happened!




The other thing I leave up year-round, are my "HOPE" letters. Years ago I bought JOY, NOEL and HOPE. After Christmas was over that year I put away the first two, but thought that HOPE was something I needed all year long. My HOPE has been for different things over the years ranging from things as trivial as hoping for snow to the first thing I really hoped for when looking at my letters; becoming pregnant with Camden. They aren't like a lucky charm, but rather a reminder that I need to pray for my desires and put my hope in the One who can fulfill them. I will be moving my HOPE from the front table at the end of the month when I put away all my winter decorations (and the pine branches on the mantel are very dry and needing to be thrown out by now!), but it will remain. We all need a little hope!