Experience the Happily Ever After

Several years ago, my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and my husband and I went in together on a 100-year-old log cabin on 12 acres in the North Carolina mountains. After a couple of trips up from Florida to make it almost livable (replaced leaky roof, fixed septic system so toilets would flush, etc.), we decided to all spend Christmas up there. The cabin had no heat, and we couldn’t build a fire in the fireplace, because the chimney had toppled years earlier. So we tried our best to keep warm by the wood-burning stove we had installed on one of our previous trips.

Instead of buying gifts for each other, we decided we would all buy a little something for the cabin. My gift was a big electric griddle, which my husband immediately put to good use making pancakes. Then came time to find a tree. We figured surely on 12 acres, there would be a perfect Christmas tree. We soon discovered that although the property has lots of evergreens, they’re not the “Christmas tree” kind. We did finally settle on a little evergreen that epitomized the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The poor thing was so droopy, it wouldn’t support the lights and decorations, so we tied it to the rafters to keep it upright. With such a rustic setting, it seemed fitting to make some of the decorations, which included stringing popcorn and holly berries. After about two hours, we had a six-foot-long strand finished and piles of broken up popcorn on the floor.

That first Christmas at the cabin, our surroundings weren’t fancy and we didn’t have a lot of the comforts of home, but it ended up being one of the most memorable Christmases I’ve ever celebrated. In the hustle and bustle of the season, it’s easy to forget the real meaning of Christmas. We get so focused on finding the perfect gift for everyone on our list and running here and there at such a frantic pace we meet ourselves coming and going. It’s nice when we can just slow down, simplify and focus on Jesus Christ, the greatest gift of all.