Christmas is Coming 🎄
I know what you are thinking… you are crazy to be thinking about Christmas when Thanksgiving isn’t even here yet! I mean there are still 48 days until Christmas! Believe me I hear you! But things are crazy right now and planning calms me down. Christmas is crazy but beautiful and it both stresses me out and brings me joy!
Needless to say that I love Christmas! It’s my favorite holiday these days! It wasn’t always my favorite holiday but since I’ve had kids things have changed! Over the past 4 years Christmas has become dearer and dearer to my heart. We have created our own traditions and quirky ways to do things. Every Christmas we’ve taken a trip, driven around looking at Christmas Lights, Made homemade ornaments, Written Christmas Cards, Opened books 12 days in a row, and listened to Christmas Music.
This year things will likely be a lot different! Less material gifts and more experiences! I still plan on doing a few of the normal things but I’ve created a Holiday Bucket List for this year to create more one on one time with the kids! If you want to join in I will add some links of additional ideas! Click away 🙂 Also feel free to comment below about some of your favorite traditions!
- Drink Hot Chocolate
- Make a homemade ornament
- Play in the snow
- Look at Christmas Lights
- Open books for the 12 days of Christmas
- Send at least 10 Christmas Cards
- Listen to Christmas Music
- Build a gingerbread house
- Have a Christmas Movie Night
- Give the kids Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve
- Take Christmas Photos of the kids
- Go to a Christmas Eve Service
- Decorate the tree
- Make Christmas cookies
- Listen to carolers or go caroling
- Build a Christmas fort to read books in
- Hang Christmas lights
- Read Luke 2:1-20
- Do a Christmas craft with the kids
- Unwrap gifts on Christmas Day
This year we decided that we aren’t giving the kids toys for Christmas. Partially because they get toys from grandparents and we are trying really hard to not overdo it this year! It is so easy to go overboard! The kids both have wishlists as requested by some grandparents. We already purchased clothes for the kids as gifts (I know oh so exciting) and a couple Christmas-themed books for the 12 days of Christmas. We recycle our Christmas books each year. So at the end of the holiday we pack up the books and are ready to go for the next year. If we don’t have 12 Christmas themed books we can borrow them from the library. Eventually I’d like to have 12 books for each kid! But I’m not in a rush because it’s fun adding a couple new ones each year. It’s nice having everything already purchased because life is crazy right now!
I haven’t started writing Christmas Cards out yet… my cards are in storage with Christmas stuff but I am still hoping to get them sent out! Let me know below if you’d like one! I can’t promise that I will get them done this year but I am going to try!
I love the fort idea! I think I’ll have to copy that one! Most of the others we also do. We also try to hit some of the local Christmas activities as well 🙂
What kind of local activities do you guys do?
Sounds like a good Christmas to me. I despise the holiday for all the commercial pressure it puts on me to spend, spend, spend. I try and feel like I fail each year. This year I promised myself I will go minimal and maybe that will teach gratitude to the kids. I think you have the right idea with yours early.
It is intense competing with commercialism… something had to change! I was getting so overwhelmed by everything and feeling disappointed when things didn’t go as grand as I had imagined. I love going all out for Christmas and making it special but special doesn’t mean it has to be expensive!
AMEN & AMEN AGAIN. We have been so busy celebrating our 20th anniversary which culminates with Ben’s 70th birthday year.
We drove our RV across the lower half of the US for 3.5 months…our lofty goal was five months but we were both becoming exhausted.
We took our extended grandkids Rogue River jet boating over night last July which was wonderful. I was saddened when our oldest grandson Justin backed out at the very last minute but he is busy trying to take more control of him
-self. SADDEST, his oldest cousin
Vinny Velarde just died from a drug over-dose…PRAYERS.
We spent two weeks on Kauai
in August with my high school
best friends/spouse in celebration of our belated 50th birthdays.
Our second two weeks Tom/Gina/
Kylee…her cousin Sophia…and Ben’s son Jonathan joined us so they could go Zip-lining/off-road-
ing in the jungles. A month later
we celebrated our 20th annivers-ary cruising from Seattle-Sydney
for a month…then flying to Fiji for a week…gorgeous tropical island
…then a week in Honolulu as we were hopping home rather than the grueling 16-18 hour flights.
We are home for 2.5 months be-fore we celebrate Ben’s 70th on a cruise all the way around South America from Ft Lauderdale for nine weeks…WOOHOO. My son
Tom became a Mormon a year ago and Gina has lost 75 lbs on Medifast…gorgeous GIRLIE. Kylee is in drivers ed. I am sharing my 71st birthday with Breanna 12/
Kylee 16…PARTY TIME. ♡♡♡
Wowza!!!!! It sounds like you have been so busy!!!! Congrats on your anniversary! It sounds like you celebrated with an awesome adventure! Looks like you guys were so busy and didn’t slow down at all!
😦 I’m sorry to hear about Vinnie! That is devistating. *Praying*