Journal Your Christmas Giveaway

My husband and I have talked about this in the form of gifts the last couple of days and I hope to carry it throughout the rest of the season including events, decorations etc. Basically a less is more approach. The kids (and both of us!) don't need oodles and oodles of gifts just so there are a lot of gifts under the tree. If our son wants Legos, then he'll get Legos sets and we won't feel the need to overdo with other things just to have them. We'll only go to the events we WANT to rather than the ones we feel like we should. Hoping we can focus on each other and the things we truly enjoy as well as the spirit of the season.

My daughter will be three this December and this will be my son's first Christmas. I want to enjoy the the true meaning of Christmas and start some new traditions with her year.

Hi Ali, after 5 months of total motherhood, in April this year I returned back to work and found your blog and wonder and the art of scrapbooking. Since then, I love hearing from your work and I have pictures of my little boy, in December to create an album in its first year of life. This will be my first Christmas as Mom, all I want to do is to fully enjoy the little time I left my job with my husband and our son and see his face the day “Los Reyes Magos” open their gifts (6 January very traditional in Spain) and their grandparents (the first grandchild for everyone)!
Many kisses from Spain.

I'm hoping I will have found a job before Christmas, so I can buy some prezzie's this year! Failing that, my lovely nephew will be celebrating his first Christmas and what's more fun than that? (and a wonderful scrapbooking opportunity)

This year it's all about simplicity for me. The older I get, the more I truly realize that LESS is MORE. Blessings to you & your family!

I'm planning on doing as much as possible ahead of time, that way I can be involved in making memories with my family, not just overseeing them. On the 2Peas board there is a great plan ahead thread going on. Becca :)

I am going to try and not worry about not having "the perfect gift". I will not be wrapping gifts this year on Christmas eve.

My goals: plan less, spend less, DO less, but experience more, give *of* myself more, and feel more. No more trying to make the perfect holiday for everyone on the planet.

I hope being more organized and doing some pre-planning now will help me stay more in the moment during the holidays.
I've got two shopping days planned for November and I'm hoping I can say my gift buying is done before December starts!
Karen W.

I am taking a vow to just stay simple. I have also decided to do all homemade gifts and stay out of the stores. Not good for the economy, but good for my sanity.

I have been contemplating this for weeks now. I really don't know what I'm going to do! I need to make the holidays less stressful but I love having my house all decked out for Christmas. I need more peace and way less drama. Anyway to accomplish this would be so welcomed.

Funny you should ask, because my goal this year is to not be a crazy woman when it comes to things I feel like I HAVE to do around the holiday season. I'm going minimal this year, and I'm thinking that will free up some time for me to complete a December Daily project!

A few things that I've started doing the past couple of years to have a "sane" Christmas season:
-start early and do a little as time goes on and not trying to do it all the the week before Christmas (writing up the gift list, shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, etc.)
-try to incorporate more experiences and not necessarily buy things to celebrate the season. And to make even the "simple" experiences special (getting dressed up to visit Santa, popcorn & hot cocoa on movie night, etc.)
-limit said experiences and not feel guilty saying, "no". Continue doing what worked and kids/adults liked doing last year, don't feel obligated to do things we don't like, incorporate new experiences, etc.
We really had a stress-free Christmas season last year b/c I really worked hard to make it that way. We enjoyed the holidays and didn't feel burnt out when they were over.

I've been working hard to have our house all organized so we can just enjoy the holidays with less stress.

To make our holidays a bit more "sane" this year, we plan to try and join our families together for one celebration. My parents will be joining us at my in-laws. It makes for a lot less house-hopping and more time to enjoy each other's company.

This year, I'm finally, finally going to do some baking in advance!

1. Get the foundation of my December Daily done early-- and this year I am combining Hannukah + Christmas instead of 2 separate books
2. Do a page a day
3. Relax and Enjoy the Season

At the moment we are in limbo with my husband's company moving to another city & most all of his type of job going along with it. So, my plan for this holiday season is to remember to focus on the moment. Not to worry about who gets what and where we have to be and when, but to just focus on the moment I am in and to savor each of those moments.

Ali first of all, Happy Birthday!!! Hope you are having a great one. As for us, our holidays will be crazier I think, because we are excepting our 2nd daughter any day now, but then again, it will be wonderful to actually have off all of the holidays; so I am prepared to plan as much family time in there as possible with lots of fun activities for my 3 year old. My December Daily is coming together very nicely and hope to get some photos uploaded to flickr very soon, thanks again as always!

buying my gifts early, in fact I'm almost done! Also gonna make my cookies early and freeze those, and the teacher's gifts are on my mind, I'm even gonna let the kiddos help!