Now that I have my own children (where have the years gone? I already have more kids than my own parents did), I find it even more fun to be able to watch them get excited about Christmas time. We have so much to do this week to get ready, and thank God I am finally feeling really good!!
What's your list of things left to do? This is ours:
- bake cookies
- bake pies for christmas dinner
- get presents for a few remaining people
- give santa some tips on where to find some dairy-free stocking stuffers
- finish making a few Christmas presents
- clean our house top to bottom
- do the laundry
- finish up our Jesse Tree
- set up our outdoor nativity scene
- buy a Christmas Tree
- buy new Christmas PJs
- get hair cuts for everyone
There has been lots of thought put into Christmas traditions this year, and with me being sick, we have really tried to scale back and simplify. What we want to make sure we do is spend lots of time together as a family: together with just us and the kids, together with all of our extended family, and together with our beloved friends. So.. I have to get this house cleaned up and in shape so we can have our friends and family over and welcome them into our home and shower them with our love :-)
Here is what we are going to do this year:
On Weds we are going to go pick out a tree and set it up in our living room (no decorations yet).
On Friday night we are going for a special dinner at my sister's house to celebrate and early christmas with them
On Saturday night (Christmas Eve) we are going to go to an early evening mass and celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.
When we come home from mass, we are going to get into our new Christmas PJs, put on some Christmas music for the first time this season, get out some good Christmas baking, Christmas oranges and eggnog, and decorate our Christmas Tree together. Then we'll read the Christmas Story, put baby Jesus in the nativity scene, say our bedtime prayers together downstairs and then go off to bed. (after the kids are asleep we'll put out all the presents under the tree, and hopefully santa will come and fill our stockings)
Christmas morning we will get up at a reasonable hour (LOL) and open our stockings and presents, have breakfast, sing happy birthday to Jesus, start the turkey, play with our new toys and enjoy a nice quiet morning together. In the afternoon our family will all come over and we will celebrate the special feast day together, with fresh white candles in our advent wreath, a nice homecooked meal, laughter, love and joy.
Daddy doesn't have to go back to work until after New Years, so we will have all week to play, avoid the packed malls, go for walks and sleigh rides, go to mass, play cards and games, visit friends and family - and have them over, take naps, giggle, make messes... and just plain celebrate the twelve days of Christmas.
I can't wait!!
No comments:
Post a Comment