Is It All Hustle & Bustle?

I mentioned earlier this month, about the concept of a "slow December."  In my best efforts, here we are in mid-December (less than a few days away from Christmas!) and I wonder where this time has gone?  I don't really know why this has stuck with me this Christmas, but I can't seem to shake it off.  

As school was released Wednesday, I have a clear picture of smiles on all of the sweet babies faces as they ran down the hall, arms dangling with homemade ornaments and artwork, shouting "Merry Christmas!" to each person they passed.  At that moment, God spoke to me.  I replayed that image of happiness displayed by those little ones and those around me and was reminded of where the joy from Christmas really comes from...Hope.  Hope is Christmas.  Without the birth of Christ, we would have no hope as the human race.  There would be no reason for the smiles on our little ones faces.  There would be no kids running down the hall shouting "Merry Christmas!"  Without the cross, there would be no tree decorated with the blood of the lamb...or those that we love to put up every year in our own homes in remembrance of that tree adorned at Calvary.  (Yes, that is what they represent!)  
Oh, how I personally miss the mark every year!  

So again, (after I just return from a day of full fledged marathon Christmas shopping) I have to ask myself...is it all hustle and bustle?  I wonder how I ended up making Christmas out to be so extravagant.  I love everything about it, but yet...why do we really celebrate it?    Is it really all about the hustle and bustle and gifts?  Or the hope, born that day in a stable so many years ago.  The gifts, traditions, and decorations are not wrong...but they are symbolic.  Let's not forget what they stand for;) 

Merry CHRISTmas week to you and yours!