Honoring Christmas: the hard work

Some of the feedback I've received since I started this series a few days ago has gotten me really excited about upcoming posts. This post, however, isn't one that's exciting to write. I'd love to skip over the tedious hard stuff and go straight to fun stuff. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. Christmas doesn't either.

The truth is that deciding in our hearts to honor Christmas and to make the most of it is one thing. Living out that decision is another. No matter where our hearts are, Christmas still brings lots of busyness that most of us can't escape. We have places to go. We have gifts to buy and wrap. We have food to make. We have decorating and cleaning to do. And if you manage a lot of these tasks at your house, the Christmas season can be a stressful time.

The year our kids came home I made the decision to finish all my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. I figured that I'd be able to relax and celebrate Christmas with my family much easier when such a time consuming (and sometimes stressful) task could be crossed off my list. It really did help. In fact, the experiment was so successful that they were kicking me out of the stores at 11pm on Thanksgiving Eve the following year as I finished off my last few purchases.

Unfortunately, finishing the shopping didn't erase the rest of the busyness. I was still pulling late nights baking and sending Christmas cards and decorating and cleaning. As much as I love many aspects of the Christmas chaos, it's much harder to focus on honoring Christmas when I'm looking at my to do list after only a few hours of sleep.

So this year I committed to working harder before Thanksgiving so I can relax and honor Christmas in December. I'm a procrastinator by nature, but I know that every task I force myself to do now will free me up to enjoy the season later. One resource that has helped me to stay on track has been Simple Mom's 12 Weeks to a Peaceful Christmas. I realize it's a bit unfair to introduce you to it with less than 6 weeks to go, but you could pull an all nighter to catch up or do 2 assignments each week from now until Christmas. Better yet, you could read it, find a few ideas that will help you, and start small this year. Trying to change everything at once may create more stress than it alleviates anyway.

The most important thing is to consider for yourself what holiday tasks distract you most from honoring Christmas and take action to minimize the distractions. Focus on working ahead and simplifying the work. As we all prioritize these 2 goals, we will be more free to enjoy the season in significant ways.

In my next post I'll start sharing some specific ways we honor Christmas in our family. I hope you'll check back and add your input to the conversation.

quote of the day

I just overheard Garty saying to Peter, "Daddy, my belly hurts. Can you tickle it?"

first gift update

For those who donated $10 on Friday toward the first gift campaign, I wanted to let you know that in 24 hours, over $10,000 was raised! Isn't it amazing what happens when many who have much make small sacrifices for those who have little?

I'm reentering family life after a weekend women's retreat. I'll be back tomorrow or Wednesday with the next post in our Honoring Christmas series.

Honoring Christmas: a series

I don't want to freak anyone out, but Christmas is exactly 6 weeks away. It's hard to believe. Since our kids came home in 2007 I've given a lot of thought to Christmas. I love the hype. Buying gifts. Party hopping. Decorating. Listening to incessant Christmas music. Baking. Driving around to see Christmas lights. But an American Christmas was new to our kids, and I wanted them to understand the true focus of Christmas and not miss it in the wonderfully fun busyness. So we made a choice to become more intentional about our Christmas season. It's been good for the kids... and for us as well.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to do a series of blog posts entitled Honoring Christmas. Most of us enjoy celebrating Christmas, but honoring it requires focusing on the purpose of the celebrating. I don't know about you, but I've spent a lot more Christmas seasons celebrating that I have honoring.

Not everything our family does will work for you, but I hope something will. And I hope that as I share our family's Christmas traditions, you will leave comments and share yours.

If you want to set your heart on honoring Christmas this year, please consider giving your first gift of the season TODAY.
Water for Christmas is a campaign that started in 2008. It grew out of the heart of a mommy like me who has beautiful African children. Little did she know that her campaign would grow into a huge movement. So today Water for Christmas is kicking off the 2009 campaign by asking everyone to donate $10 as the first gift you give this Christmas season. Just $10. Some of us will spend that much to eat out today. Or to pay gas and tolls for your commute. Or to pick up an armful of necessities at the supermarket. But the $10 you donate will provide clean life-saving water to one person in Africa for 10 years. That amazes me every time I think about it. Today you can make a secure, tax deductible donation through an established and reputable organization that will save lives. I can't think of many better ways to set our hearts on honoring Christmas this year than to start the season by giving a truly significant gift. I know you're intrigued, so go read more about today's first gift campaign and consider making a donation.

Beyond believing in the power of the Water for Christmas campaign, I am personally biased toward it because the wells they're currently digging are all in Liberia. It makes me sentimental and teary eyed to think that one or more of the wells could save the life of our kids' father or sibling or aunt or uncle. That's powerful for me. It means that our $10 donation allows us to honor Christmas and our children at the same time.

In just a minute I'm going to click over to make our own donation. Then I'm going to sketch out a schedule for the rest of our Honoring Christmas series. I hope you'll check back and help me to think through ways to be more intentional about our Christmases. Let's not spend the next 6 weeks running around missing the point.

sweet boy

Garty just climbed up behind me on my desk chair and said, "Mommy, your buddy's behind you." Then he proceeded to rub my back. I'm thankful that little things can momentarily erase my memory of last night's constant bickering, whining, and obnoxious behavior from 3 little people.

our kids and food

Joshua just asked what we're having for dinner. When he heard chicken and broccoli alfredo, he screamed a loud and enthusiastic, "Yay!!" Then a pause. Then he asked, "Did we have that before?"

It shouldn't amuse me any more when the kids act that way about food. It's definitely not the first time I've had a similar conversation. We just love food around here, whether we remember the last time we had it or not!

Happy Halloween!

We're not big Halloween fans, but the kids sure are cute. This year we had a chef, a "fixer" (a.k.a. builder), and a clown.