Christmas is a time to reflect on the gift of Christ and enjoy time with family and friends, not a time to be overwhelmed by a crazy to do list that never ends. This was the most stress free Christmas that I have ever had. I want to share with you what made it easier this year. Make sure you do the things that are most important to you and your family. Don't feel pressure from someone else to do something, just because. Like the Christmas card. If it is too much to get it out before Christmas, do it around the New Year, or even Valentine's Day. Here's what helped me this year:
Focusing on Christ - Our gifts to teachers were very Christ centered. We put together a book of 12 stories that they could read before Christmas. We also did a scripture chain, I printed out a scripture and then a question to go with it, or an act of service that the kids were suppossed to do. We also played with the child friendly Nativity Scene a lot (too much, they figured out how to take it apart and catapoult the figures all over the front room. So much for reverence.)
The Christmas Card- This year over Thanksgiving, my Dad was in the hospital in Las Vegas with some heart problems. I put my stress to work and ordered our Christmas cards on line at Shutterfly. It was really easy, took about as much time as it would have in the store, and I did it in my PJ's. I got free shipping, pluse 35% off. (You can google coupons for Shutterfly, it saved us an extra 5%). Then I wrote and printed our letter. I also took the time to get all of the addresses off of the hundreds of scraps of paper in my Christmas folder and entered them into the computer. Now I have them for labels instead of having to hand write everything.) So, I had the letter and envelopes addressed before the cards got here. If you don't get it done before Christmas, don't stress, do a New Year's Letter.
Make a list and On-line Shopping - My mom had a knee replacement in early November, so she got her shopping done in October. This forced me to get a list together. I knew what she was getting the kids. Then I gave a list of 2 or 3 things to Mike's parents, his mom let me know what she was getting them. I had my wish list made up at Amazon.com, so on Cyber Monday, I ordered everything and was done. (I only had to pay shipping on 2 items) When my dad told me to shop for him for the kids, I still had my wish list and did it all on line again. We became friends with the UPS man.
Have a "Battery Night"- My friend, Em in WI, and I started a Christmas tradition of "battery night". Pick a night close to Christmas, call your girlfriends, and go out to dinner. Then go shopping for batteries for the toys your kids are getting, and stocking stuffers. The stores are usually open insanely late, and we would ususally stay until closing. I remember a few nights when they started turning the lights on and off as a signal for us to check out. I guess we missed the "We will be closing in 10 minutes" announcement.
Wrapping - It is no secret that this is my least favorite part of Christmas. I remember one Christmas we were up until 3 AM wrapping, I was not too happy the next day. I enlisted my husband for help, he is good at wrapping, but not very fast. We started wrapping mid-December this year and finished Dec 22. I have to admit by the last 5 presents my pieces of tape were 4 to 5 inches long and the gifts looked like my 4 year old had wrapped them. I stopped writing who presents were from, because I was too tired to remember if it was us or Santa giving them. Oh well, they loved unwrapping them.
Christmas Treats - something I love to do at Christmas is make treats. This year I did 2 or 3 things that produce a lot of treats. I made cranberry bread, which I need to post, it was really good. I also did caramel popcorn, and my favorite new cookies. I will post links to this later. I had them ready or in the freezer too. When someone stopped by with something, I had a treat for them. I had to deliver a few, but it was nice to just have them ready.
Hope these suggestions will be helpful to someone, and I will certainly do this next year. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.
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