Archive for the ‘celebrate it’ Category

Its the most wonderful time of the year… while I agree with Johnny Mathis, the holidays can also be incredibly stressful as well.  There are many things I have to do… decorate my home, send out cards, buy and wrap gifts, bake, sew.   And there are many more things I love to do.

Because I love the Holidays and don’t want to miss out on all the fun, every year I make a Christmas Calendar.

I start our calendar in November.  Some years I have made it a small work of scrapbook art.  Other years it’s just a plain printed paper from my computer.  Either way, I go through the entire month and plan our fun activities, traditions and events. Then the calendar gets a place of honor on our refrigerator.

That way, it doesn’t matter if I don’t have enough brain power to plan an activity at the end of the day.  When it’s on the calendar, I’ve already thought about it ahead of time.  I am able to have what we need or have made the necessary plans… bought tickets, made arrangements, etc.  Because of our Christmas calendar, my family and I don’t miss out on the fun of the season, and are still able to get everything done.

Here are few of the things on our calendar:

• The Back in Time Nativity in my hometown (an amazing Live Nativity where they recreate Bethlehem complete with blacksmiths, weavers, millers, potters, and all the animals including camels.)
• Make gingerbread houses
• Visit the lights at Temple Square (an amazing and lovely display of lights in Salt Lake City, not to be missed if you visit Utah in the month of December)
• Making care kits for the Food Bank with our friends
• Visit real live Reindeer at the Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place Monument

Those are just a few of the activities on our calendar.  As you can see, I don’t leave out the little things like Making Gingerbread Houses at home.  That’s one of those activities that might be missed if I didn’t have it on the calendar.  Having it there helps remind to buy candies for decorating when I’m at the grocery store the week before.

Making the calendar has been our essential tool for really enjoying the Christmas season.

If you embellish your calendar and use scrapbook paper, at the end of the season, the calendar makes a nice addition to your family’s scrapbook.

Today I give thanks for the fact that I have an elastic waistband on my pants… and that Gluttony is no longer punishable by law.

I am grateful for so many things today, for family, friends, home, and for all of you…  I wish you all, whether you celebrate this day or not… a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.  ~Melody Beattie