CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 5 ~ Inspiration}

At our house, we are celebrators! We never miss the opportunity to celebrate a birthday...and the celebrations often cover several days! Thanksgiving is a big deal. So is Christmas. We celebrate the beginning of all the seasons. We can make an occasion out of almost anything. (Recently, we had iced mochas to celebrate the end of jury duty. It was indeed a happy occasion.)  

I'm not implying that you need to celebrate as much as we do, or to celebrate the same things that we celebrate. (Remember Romans 14:5?)  But since I know you wouldn't be reading this series if you weren't interested in celebrations at all, I'm going to talk about some sources of inspiration.

We are inspired by our own families' celebrations.

When you marry, each person brings his or her own family's ideas and traditions. Think about the celebrations that were meaningful to you growing up. Consider your spouse's celebration traditions too. Of course, you'll also create traditions of your own, but there is something special about incorporating some of the "old" along with the new to continue generational identity.

We are inspired with our own thoughts and desire to celebrate.

Sometimes, inspiration just comes. Our hearts want to celebrate something, and an idea is sprung. We are joyful and we look for a way to express it. You want to find a way to make an old tradition better, and you are inspired with a fresh idea. (Or you color your eggs blue with a natural dying process, and a whole table setting comes to you to celebrate Resurrection Sunday. It's the little things. ~smile~)

We are inspired by others.

Our original copy, published in 1983

One Christmas when I was a very young mother, my mom gave me the book Let's Make a Memory by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson. Within its pages were myriads of ideas for celebrations. Making memorable holidays, making memories through the seasons, making memories with special people, and more. I ate it up. Some of our traditions that were inspired by the book are still a part of our celebrations today!


A recent source of inspiration is the new cookbook Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Celebrations. I was inspired by the celebration musings and memories that the authors shared so beautifully alongside their many recipes.  (To read more about how I won the book and how much I loved it, click ~here~.)

Books, magazines, our friends...all can be wonderful sources of inspiration.

And then there's Pinterest. Inspirational at its best, overwhelming at its worst, but there are certainly ideas to be had at the click of a mouse.

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There are so many sources of inspiration for celebrations. You can never do it all, or even come close. (Nor would you wish to.) What's important is to mark an occasion in a way that is meaningful to you and that fills your heart with gratitude.

What gives you inspiration for celebrations?

This is Day 5 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.