This is the earliest I've ever been ready for Christmas...and it feels good. Most of it was done before November 30, and it's allowed me to enjoy the month of December so far. I'm far more relaxed, and can focus my efforts now on the things that I think are more important about Christmas than the gifts and baking.
Two years ago, our first Christmas home with Seth and Lizzie, I realized that my prep for Christmas had to change. I used to start around early December and, in one fateful year pre-kids, I did my shopping on Christmas Eve...not fun! But with Seth's and Lizzie's arrival, with our decision to school at home, I can't do that any more.
I simply can't shop when I feel like it because I always have the kids with me: Where I go, they go; where they go, I go. It's a little restrictive when it comes to Christmas shopping! A few weekends ago, I made special plans to shop with a couple of girlfriends on a Saturday, but otherwise I have had to plan carefully so that any errands that needed running happened during my Thursday evenings out, some of which are filled up with visiting friends (which is awesome, but which means I have to wait two weeks before I can run an errand by myself).
So I've become considerably more organized in the past couple of years. I still keep my Ideas List throughout the year (I've done that for years), and I update it fairly regularly, but now I also shop early - both online and in-store. This way I've learned that I can take advantage of sales as they come up - for example, I was able to snag an e-reader for Matthew at 50% off; and by catching amazon's one-day massive lego sale in early September, I picked up an $80 lego set for $29 (and so bought a set for each child). I keep this chart for everyone on my list. I just note on my Ideas List every time I have a gift idea for someone and, as the time draws closer and I begin to narrow the list down and make purchases, I delete other ideas or move them to the list for the following year. It's really easy to do throughout the year, and usually makes Christmas gift ideas way easy...it's kinda like menu planning, when you don't have to think every afternoon 'ah, shoot, what'm I going to cook for dinner today?'!
The Ideas List makes it possible. Here's a sample of this year's List - in this case for Matthew (the formatting is a bit wonky...sorry):
Person
|
Gift
|
Ordered/Bought
|
Complete
|
Matthew
|
|
- yes
|
YES!
|
Person
|
Stocking Stuffer
|
Store
|
Purchased
|
All 3 Kids
|
hand warmers $1 ea
|
costco/walmart
|
yes
|
oranges
|
|||
candy cane
|
walmart
|
yes
|
|
mini cereal box
|
walmart
|
yes
|
|
chocolate bits
|
walmart
|
yes
|
|
chapstick - B.Bees
|
walmart
|
yes
|
|
water colour paints
|
home
|
||
silly string
|
toys r us/dollar store
|
yes
|
|
sour candies
|
walmart
|
yes
|
|
stickers
|
walmart
|
yes
|
|
clay
|
home
|
yes
|
|
twoonie
|
|||
matchbox car
|
walmart
|
yes
|
|
mini LED flashlights $6
|
Lee Valley Tools
|
yes
|
|
nail clippers
|
superstore
|
yes
|
|
Matthew
|
silicone watch strap $11
|
children’s place
|
yes
|
Seth
|
sun glasses $9
|
sport check
|
yes
|
Lizzie
|
sun glasses $9
|
sport check
|
yes
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When it came to baking this year, I made life a little simpler. None of us need these kinds of goodies in the house, but we do like a little bit of it, and we also like to take some with us to various places during the month of December. So I/we baked five kinds this year and kept the quantities way down. It worked well...and hopefully we won't have baking to eat up in April!
(below)
The kids and I began one baking afternoon by preparing tailor-made drinks for each of us: hot chocolate; chai/egg nog; chai/milk; and milky tea. Yum!
(below)
We started off with a fun one: Reindeer cookies.
(below)
Then we moved on to shortbread...chosen because I'm not particularly wild about them, but the kids are and it doesn't seem quite like Christmas unless there are shortbread cookies.
Then there was a bit of gingerbread, a tray of delectable bark, and a few dozen fiddly little one-bite pumpkin pecan mini-tarts that I made without the kids' help.
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Now we're into the more important part of Christmas prep: Our hearts. For the past couple of years I've been focusing a lot more effort into this area. In addition to listening to lots of Christmas music, this month we spend more of our time reading Christmas stories: The ones that tell about Christ's birth; and the ones that are fun and frivolous (like The Twelve Days of Christmas and even stories about Santa!). We've also just started to read Jotham's Journey for the first time, which I've heard for years is a great book to read in the lead-up to Christmas...and so far so good!
We also celebrate Advent every day for the twenty-four days before Christmas; every day I read something from the Bible that prepares our hearts for the coming celebration of Christ's birth and we have a discussion about it (some really awesome ones!) and lots of questions get discussed. These readings start us at the beginning of the Bible and walk us through the lead-up to Christ's birth, and the prophecies that fore-told his birth. I'm enjoying this, and I think the kids are, too...though they probably enjoy more the discussions that go along with the reading! To go along with the day's reading, the kids take turns hanging a simple home-laminated ornament that represents what we've read and discussed that day.
And on the four Sundays before Christmas, in another Advent celebration, we light purple candles for our dinner table: One on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (representing the hope we have in Christ); two on the third Sunday before Christmas (the 2nd candle representing the love Christ demonstrated for us); three on the second Sunday before Christmas (the 3rd candle representing the joy of Christ's birth); and all four on the last Sunday before Christmas (the 4th candle representing the Prince of Peace being born). On Christmas Eve we will light the white centre candle along with all four purple candles, celebrating the birth of Christ.
Our celebration of Advent with readings and candles is not a prescriptive (or do I mean proscriptive?) thing that the Bible sets out for us. But these traditions do have the tendency to focus our hearts on the things that are more important than even the best gifts or the most delicious baking or the most awesome crafts. Doing these things always leave me with a particular kind of peace about how we celebrate Christmas.
Our Advent celebrations would not be complete without the fun tree that my Mom made and painted especially for our family. Similar to the calendars lots of people use, my Mom created a wooden Christmas tree for us, along with twenty-four tiny ornaments to adorn it. The kids take turns picking an ornament to hang on the tiny tree that sits on our hearth, and we then each enjoy a small chocolate to celebrate the hanging of another ornament.
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So that's it, so far. We love this season for so many reasons, and it feels good to be ready...on the inside and the outside!
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