Note to Self: Concerning Christmas

So, we did it!  Yay!  We made it through another Christmas.

So now it’s time to take stock of what worked for the family, and what we could use a little improvement next year

Let’s start with what we loved:

1.       Doing our Advent read-aloud!  Jotham’s Journey is fantastic.

2.       Doing  the Advent Lapbooking pages ( see Advent Lapbooking in the index)

3.       Making Gingerbread Houses with our Homeschool group.  Next year, maybe it would be easier if we brought graham crackers to the event. 

4.        Having Christmas Eve Dinner before the Christmas Eve Service, and then throwing the ham, potatoes and left-over green beans into a Christmas Day casserole for the potluck at the beach.  This was super easy, and super good.  Maybe next year we’ll get our Christmas Eve guests to come over a couple hours earlier to play games with us.

5.       The Potluck at the Beach!  What a great way to get together with people who don’t have family in the area, and it is low-key and pretty much stress free.  You could do this for people who have no family around at a church fellow-ship hall and it would be a great way to brighten someone else’s Christmas.

6.       Family Gifts! This year there were at least three items under the three that were to the entire family.  ( A globe, a hammock and a set of tinker toys).  It is a good way to emphasize sharing and that we are a unit, not a bunch of individuals who have the POWER to share or not share.

7.       We bought plastic shoe boxes to wrap some of the kiddos presents in, and then they had a handy place to keep their stocking stuffers from getting absorbed into all of the wrapping paper.

8.       Home Depot and Office Max for stocking stuffers!  The kiddos got some pretty cool, and very useful stocking stuffers ( great mechanical pencils, pulleys, mini-flashlights, etc.)

Things I wish we’d gotten accomplished:

1.        Family Picture to send out with the Christmas card!

2.       Wish I’d gotten more cards in the mail.  I try to send out Caribbean style Christmas cards, but they are pretty expensive if you buy them yourself, and somehow we just didn’t get around to making our own, though I don’t think it would have been that hard . . .finally, I just parted with my money and sent out less cards than I wanted to send . . .

Unpleasant Bits about Christmas

1.        “What did YOU get?” phone call.  Er, um . . .is this really what Christmas is all about?  I think we have a bit of a plan to combat this.  I’ll explain at the end of this entry.

2.       The inevitable downswing after all the overindulging of Christmas sweets and playtime.  I guess you just need to know that it is going to hit and not try to have the house perfectly clean, or the kiddos back into routines right away . . .just give everybody a little time to recover and things will be A-okay.

3.       Oh, another thing I didn’t see coming?  The Christmas movies!  ABC Family had lots of cute movies, but it did wreck havoc on our Jotham’s Journey and lighting of the Advent Wreath.  Maybe next year we will just do the Read Aloud in the morning as devotions, and then just make sure we light the wreath and pray right before bed . . .

All in all, this year was a good blend of simplicity  and stuff and we did better, I think than usual, at making sure that the kiddos remembered that to us, Christmas is not so much about STUFF, but more about Jesus. 

Next year, I want to do even better with that goal.  I think maybe we will do a Christmas Time Gratitude Journal and a Christmas Candle.

A gratitude journal is just a notebook that we write blessings into at a specific time each day.  Blessings.  We’ve all got them.  Now, let’s actually SEE them.  I think we should actually be doing this ALL YEAR long.  Time for me to find a new, unsullied notebook, isn’t it?  We might do this at family supper.  I think that would be a great time.

And the Christmas Candle?  I think if we light it at family devotions every morning, and just talk about how each time we look at that candle, we need to remember that Christmas is not about the presents under the tree.  Christmas is about the Presence that is in our lives.

What are we going to do when we get that call next year “What did YOU get for Christmas?”

I think maybe we will head it off at the pass.  Let them say “Hi” and then asked THEM a question such as one these:  “Hey, we had a great time this year being together at the beach . . .who were you with this Christmas?   Did you do a Christmas Eve service?  What does that look like at your church?  What fun games did you play with your loved ones?  Did you do any Christmas baking?”  We will work on steering the emphasis away from STUFF and back towards the real Reason for the Season.

PS, please excuse the improper formatting!  I will probably come back and try to change it, but it was perfect in the Word document, and changed when I got it to the blog!  But I know myself, and I might never get this posted if I don't do it now!  :)  Have a great day,

~ Jennifer