Week No. 1 of Holiday Series

The first thing that we can do is sit down and think about what we want for the upcoming holiday season.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What makes you happy during Thanksgiving/Christmas?
   Does it make you happy to host your family and friends? Do you like to ditch the holiday food and go out to eat? Do you enjoy going out of town? Make plans to do the things that you enjoy! I don’t mean this selfishly– so don’t say “I am ONLY doing what I want!” but if you aren’t enjoying what your doing, the people around you aren’t going to enjoy it!
2. What do you wish you did last year that you didn’t make happen? (Choose 3 things)
   Regret and disappointment can damper the holiday very easily! Last year how did you feel after you finished your final slice of pie… did you wish you saw your family more? Less? Do you wish you hosted? Or did you say you would never have people over again?
3. Do you enjoy the season?
   Do you like to soak everything in and feel sad when it is over? Well. lets plan to do “fall” or “winter” like activities all month long. Don’t wait until the last week to fit it all in and then feel stressed out. Ahead of time, add things that you love to your calendar!
4. Set a tradition!
   I urge you all to set a tradition! It doesn’t matter if you are newly married, single and loving it or have three children, set a tradition! You will love that you did and it will make the holiday that much more enjoyable! See my list of traditions below!

Traditions to start with your family! I really feel like we look forward to these traditions all year long!

• The Giving Manger
• Christmas Villages (I like the Department 56 brand, you can buy them from Amazon if you don’t have a Christmas store nearby)
• Hallmark Ornaments — as a family we add a new ornament to our tree.
• Blessing Bags
• Holiday Movie Nights
• Christmas Pj’s on Thanksgiving Night
• Holiday Decor
• Holiday Tea- High Tea during the Holidays is very special
• Drive to see fall leaves! Grab a holiday drink and go for a drive!
• Plan to go see a holiday show, movie in the theater or better yet a local dinner theater!
• Plan a favorite things party for Christmas

My 4 tips for this week:

• ONE: Pick one tradition and put the plan into place! Order your PJS, order the Giving Manger, schedule your high tea or buy tickets to your holiday show! FAM JAMS from Burt Bee’s are my personal favorite!! They take 3 weeks to ship, so now is the time! This year, we are going to add in some Christmas bedding- Ordering it and saving it for after Thanksgiving is on my list!!

• TWO: Make a tentative plan with your family/spouse. This is important. I am a planner to a fault (more so than everyone in our family)! So, to make sure I can wrap my mind around things. I start to plan and communicate with our family. This will help me plan during the following weeks!
• THREE: Plan ONE thing you love doing for the month of NOVEMBER and DECEMBER that brings your joy specific for the upcoming holiday!
• FOUR: Plan to do a family giving project! Get it going now… the days may be long but the weeks/months are fast!! You will be glad that you did this.