Inspire the Simple Life

Christmas is quickly approaching. It's only a few days away! I feel like the holiday is sneaking up on us this year, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, there are a lot of family traditions to schedule into a limited number of days.

My brother arrived home from Georgia to visit for the holidays. The house feels complete with laughter filling up the space. With only a few days left before Christmas, our family participated in traditional family festivities today.

You're probably wondering: Haven't you been doing family traditions all month long?

Well, yes, but you can never have too much fun, right? Today, my sister and I baked homemade Christmas cookies--a tradition dating back in our family for as long as I can remember. There's an old photograph of us baking cookies when I was about five years old. My face is covered in flour, but I'm smiling and having fun.

My sister and I baking cookies when we were younger
(photo/Kasy Long).

Nothing has really changed since then. I still get covered in flour and I still have fun baking cookies. I wouldn't have it any other way.

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (photo/NY Daily News). 

After baking the cookies (and happily eating a few), our family participated in a fairly new tradition established in recent years. We watched Chevy Chase's "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." This movie is probably one of my favorite Christmas movies, except for the animated version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

It's fun to gather as a family and keep life simple. It's impossible not to laugh while watching Christmas Vacation. We should remember to keep life simple and laugh more often. I love these family traditions, and while our cookies aren't professional, they're ours. 

These are our traditions. You have your own traditions, so enjoy this time. Keep life simple.

Happy holidays!

-KJL-

Important Note: I won't be writing a Weekend Writing blog post this weekend, due to the holidays. I will return next Wednesday, December 27. Happy holidays!