My husband and I have been married and making a home together for almost eight years, but I still feel new to the world of hosting. We’ve lived in a few different places and welcoming friends in has looked different in each home. However, there has been one common enemy each time I’ve put on my hostess hat.

It’s not our home’s limited square footage. It’s not my time constraints as a mom. And it’s not even my un-fancy cooking skills.

It’s the internet.

Ahh, postpartum. If you are a mama yourself then you know the wonder of this time. You’re snuggling a brand-new baby, getting to memorize their face for the first time and drink in that perfect newborn smell. And, you’re healing, trying to figure out how to feed this new little person, processing your birth experience, and more tired than you ever have been. Postpartum is blessing and grit all mixed together.

Last year and this year (it’s a tradition now!), Cameron and I have hosted something we call a “shepherd’s dinner” at Christmastime. We invite friends and family to sing Christmas carols and read scripture passages in my in-law’s barn. Everyone is crowded together, sitting on hay bales with light mostly just from battery-lit candles. We sing acapella and no one ever knows who’s supposed to sing out the first note at the beginning of each song. Everyone pulls their coats a little tighter when the wind blows in. This is our small way to step out of the busyness, for one night, and let the truth of what happened over 2,000 years of cold nights ago wash over us all over again.