SEVERAL YEARS AGO, Hannah Brencher, a writer and blogger I adore, wrote a beautiful post about the pressure she feels in the inevitable rush to Christmas. It’s a topic that is neither shocking nor eye-opening; I’ll bet you’ve felt the same pounding heart as we plan, shop, list, wrap, cook, decorate, prepare.

Still Hannah went on to say something that, all this time later, is still with me. Instead of focusing on the payoff of a perfect Christmas day—instead of looking forward with such anticipation (and such high expectation) to the big stuff to come—she suggested this.

Let’s just pretend it can’t get better than this right here.

Hannah Brencher

It’s a beautiful way to approach the season, I think, settling your heart into the hundred thousand moments of prelude. As if these are the moments that matter most. Because it’s true, wouldn’t you agree? In so many ways? Pulling from Tree Box Number 2 the worn Rudolph ornament Suzann’s sweet mother gave you all those years ago. Opening the mailbox to a stack of red envelopes. Finding the very most perfect little something something for someone who means the world.

Let’s just pretend it can’t get better than this right here.

Hannah’s words have come back to me again and again in these early days of December. I feel my anxiety rising and magically there they are, wrapping round and round me like a quilt meant to stop a chill. They remind me to slow down, to settle down, to take note.

And to smile. To simply smile, in acknowledgement of the sweet, simple moments that are the heart of this holiday season. To remember life is good, people are good, that sometimes love and joy and peace will come to you in a thousand tiny ways.

XXOO