My Thankful Jesus Tree

On November 3rd I put up my Christmas tree. I had been itching to make it happen for a few weeks but made myself hold off until November. I celebrated by sharing about it on Facebook. And then the backlash began. Multiple students who came to meet with me that week started our conversation with something like "so you just decided to skip Thanksgiving?"

In my defense, i'm not skipping Thanksgiving. I have full intentions of celebrating with Turkey and family and eating way too much dessert. Trust me, I don't skip holidays that involve lots of delicious food being consumed. I'm from the south, who from the south doesn't celebrate with food??

As I thought through my students' challenges about skipping Thanksgiving, I realized I'm not skipping Thanksgiving............. I'm just choosing to express my thankfulness for Jesus longer than just December. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for Jesus year round. But there is something about a season that helps us to focus on Him even more that I love. So yes I may have put my tree up early, but it's also helping to remind me to be more aware of my thankfulness of Jesus more often. Maybe I'll call it my Thankful Jesus Tree. Then it can easily span both months of holiday celebrations without excluding one or the other!