Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's time to start talking about Christmas and the holidays, the month of December.

Where did 2023 go? I have no idea. I don't know. Really, we just started, right? Like, I can remember things that just happened in the beginning of the year, and now we're looking at the end of the year. Okay, but partly we're on Grace Lee's team, and we do start talking Christmas products like around Mother's Day or before. That's true. And then we did set up our fresh floral Christmas tree in October. So maybe it's felt like it's been... We're pushing it. Accelerated just a little bit. So here we are. Here we are. Here we are actually. Actually ready for it. Here we are actually here at the Christmas season. Oh my goodness. Well, you already mentioned that we're going to be digging into this season like what it looks like to make room for Christ in the holiday season and in our hearts. And not really just holidays, but for always.

And it's like you've almost written a book or something with that title.

In case you're new around here and you don't know, Ruth has written an Advent

Devotional that released last year called Emmanuel, an invitation to prepare him

room at Christmas and always.

But before the devotional came,

there was a whole set of cards called Prepare Him Room. And both of them are on Grace-Lay

Shop actually right now. But Ruth, tell us a little bit about what's the connection? How did

this all start? How do we get here? I love telling the story because I think I never plan on doing

an Advent devotional. And I'm so glad that so many of our listeners, so many of our customers

and our friends choose to use a manual as their devotional for Advent. But several years ago,

I was noticing that our family, probably because we're in retail, because

I speak a lot and travel a lot during the holiday season right before Christmas, we would just

get to December and feel a little like, oh my goodness, why are we in such a rush? Why do we feel like

we're behind? And I know it, we all relate to that. I know I'm not the only one. It's not like

we have to have the same

context or lives or even like job situations. It's just the way it is. We're all like

somehow tumbling towards December 25th as if there's a finish line and we all have to get there.

And I just felt super cluttered in my heart and my soul all the time.

And it didn't really matter if I got, you know, 15 different books in the mail because

there are really great books and really beautiful activities.

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