Home For the Holidays

Just 14 days until Christmas. The tree is up, most of my shopping is done, and the presents are wrapped. I just love December, as Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year (well, at least I am starting to think it is again). As a child, my mom always did such a wonderful job of making Christmas special for us. No matter how much stress I am sure she was under, I never noticed. All I remember is the decorating, the baking, celebrating with family, having fun, and of course...the presents! The best part though, was I remember waking up in my bed every single Christmas morning to find our stockings filled with the goodies Santa brought us.

Since becoming a wife and mother myself, Christmas time has definitely been different than what I remember from my childhood years. Although my mom still does a wonderful job of making Christmas special and she is still able to make it look like a "stress-free" event, I have often felt like it's impossible to do the same for my own children. Between over-crowded shopping aisles, screaming children (and parents), not enough time to do everything, and being on the road for celebrations here and there...I was finding myself wishing Christmas was over before it ever arrived.

This year, I decided it needs to be different because I want my kids to grow up with the same memories and love for Christmas that I had as a child. So, in reflecting on my childhood, I started thinking about "how" my mom and dad made Christmas so memorable. What I remember is that even though we didn't always have a lot, my mom made Christmas a BIG event in small ways. We did a lot of things together as a family (just mom, dad, and us kids). We helped decorate and bake cookies, we played Christmas music and sang, we watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas together, we got all dressed up and went to church, and we stayed home for the holidays. Christmas was one time of year that we never traveled farther than 5 miles which meant we ALWAYS had Christmas Eve Day all to ourselves and we got to sleep in our own beds.

So like I stated in the beginning...the tree is up, most of my shopping is done, and the presents are wrapped. This year, I did most of my shopping long before Blitz Day (or Black Friday as some call it), I wrapped my presents as I bought them, and we did most of the decorating together as a family this year. I will be getting together with friends next week to exchange cookies for an assorted platter to bring to family gatherings, and last but not least...we will be staying home for the holidays. Although we will still travel on Christmas Day to Worthington and on New Year's Day to St. Cloud, we will be staying home for Christmas Eve this year. We have decided to continue the tradition of spending that day together as a family. We plan to sleep in, take the kids sledding, bake in the afternoon, go to church early, open our presents, and end the night with a holiday movie and popcorn. Santa will also be able to visit us during the night, so Alexis and Logan can awake to filled stockings while Jadee and I are flipping pancakes for breakfast before heading off to Grandma and Grandpa's.

Sound too good to be true? Well, maybe just a little but it sure sounds like a good plan and like the kids, I can hardly wait until Christmas this year!