Changes for Christmas, 2013

[AnnieClaus]

It's been a week since the big day!!!

Now is the best time to ask:
What worked?
What didn't?

Tonight I went on a drive looking to see who still had their lights up. I went by one house that really does it up and took some time and just sat and looked and looked.

Then I burst into tears. Why? Because the holidays really kicked my bootie this year!
It was like running a marathon- something every single day and/or night!
I loved the get togethers and the company but want to make some changes for next year.

I plan to:
* Shop earlier for CW's. This took too much time and really- 2 women don't participate so I think it's time to cut them out.
* If my gift is an event- tickets to something- purchase far in advance. That way it's a guarantee "Go!"
* Keep soups and casseroles in the freezer- this did help out as I had some soups. But would like to add more. With my new house, I think I'll be hosting a lot of family.
* Take time off at the holidays. Christmas is on a Weds and I plan on taking off Th, and Fri. Trying to work and participate in all the social events was grueling.
* Get family iteneraries early. My oldest brother tends to not commit to a specific day and then lets us know the day before his arrival. I had to switch days off for this. Added stress that isn't needed.
* Get the Christmas stuff at work done earlier. There is no reason I can't get the cards ordered by October and the employee and vendor address labels done weeks before they are needed.
* Use MHH plans- Holiday Grand Plan, Rudolph days, Wrapping Parties- more. I joined MHH for a reason. And the biggest one is to help out with Christmas.

What changes do you want to make in 2013?

Annie

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Annie, I agree that there is no point feeling miserable because you are running ragged around Christmas. It is meant to a joyful time.

My word for the year is basics and I want to get back to basics where Christmas is concerned,

~I am going to par down the baking a bit. I am still feeding the family biscuits and chocolates and to be truthful we are no longer interested in it, but I hate to waste food.

~I am going to try to use the wrapping parties for either wrapping or prep...

~I am going to try and reduce the items in stockings, I seem to be buying things for the sake of buying things.

~I am definitely going to giving a combination of handmade and bought gifts.

 

[ejagno]

Annie, I'm so sorry that you're having to destress and glad you were finally able to let all that anxiety and tension go

Like you, we all have areas that we can improve upon. However, I'm trying to use these throughout the year, not just Christmas prep.

1. Updated Contacts - I wasn't able to send out Christmas cards because my DIL accidentally deleted my personal address list on my computer. I'll need this for my son's housewarming, my granddaughters christening and so much more. I also lost all of my phone numbers when I dropped my phone in a gallon of tea.............don't ask. LOL

2. Decorations done well ahead of time. This was my original intent with a huge storeroom.................until my kids moved back in while building. They should be out well before then and I will start on my decorations. This goes for every holiday/season.

3. Arrange for Christmas photo to be taken before Thanksgiving since DH works 6 -16 hour days per week during the holidays and is simply exhausted beyond belief on Sundays.

4. Make plans now for who will be hosting each holiday such as Easter, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I took New Years. I'd like my youngest to take Easter. My middle son wants to have his housewarming moved to Memorial Day so we'll have both. Middle son wants Christmas Day. I'll take Christmas Eve. This leaves oldest son taking Thanksgiving. It's split up to where everyone shares in the responsibility of hosting a special occassion. It's not my responsibility to plan and host every event or holiday. They are all grown adults with families of their own. I would like to reinstate our family night dinner. The only difference is that I would like to do this monthly instead of weekly just to keep in touch since everyone seems so busy.

5. Buy forever stamps well ahead of time. I highly doubt that prices will go down.

6. Establish and follow plans and routines to keep home company ready all throughout the year as well as Christmas.

7. Buy white elephant gifts, employee gift cards, stocking stuffers and general host gifts ahead of time.

8. Set aside necessary funds to cover the holidays and related expenses well ahead of time. Although I buy all year there are still alot of winter/holiday related expenses such as food, firewood, holiday wear....

I'm sure I'll think of more but that's all for now.

 

[teachermomof2]

Great thread...and great ideas.

I would like to have more people over, but really need to plan in advance with everyone.

I want to save more money throughout the year, or at least purchase in advance as much as possible.

 

[Kim Loves Snow]

I typed up my notes last week. I found them very helpful when I did it last year.

Here are my notes:

1. Decorating earlier this year was great. Because it was a new house it seemed to take almost a month to get all the decorations up, decide what went where, buy or make what was needed, etc. Refer to pictures when getting ready for 2013 and decide what I want to change by early fall. The outside door greenery was put up the Monday after Thanksgiving and was nearing its end by Christmas day. Either go with faux greenery around the door or put it up the first weekend of December using free greens picked up at local tree lots.

2. I did not do well with wrapping this year. I fell back into my last minute wrapping. Part of that was because I did not have as much to wrap, part was because of all the party prep for the 12/15 open house and part was because we did not have a lot of extra money and we were still shopping right before Christmas. I would like to have 99% of the wrapping done by December 10 in 2013 again. I will also follow the wrapping parties on MHH. To achieve this I will set up a portable wrapping station late summer so I can pull everything out easily when I have some items to wrap.

3. For shopping, see above for the challenges. I DID NOT like shopping right before Christmas. The selection was terrible and I felt anxious about it and did not enjoy it at all. Shoot for having all shopping done the first weekend in December if possible.

4. Stocking stuffers worked out well – each family bringing 5 wrapped stuffers per person including those in their group. There were some duplicates (socks!) but all in all no one had to buy and wrap an overwhelming amount of stuffers. I did feel like 5 limited me on creativity so I might save most of the stocking stuffer shopping for November/December.

5. Because of the move I slacked off on the gift spreadsheet this year. In the gift closet, I’d like to create a crate that is for “not logged yet” gifts and then ones for the various occasions: Christmas, birthdays, Vday, Easter, etc. Make time at least once a month to clear out the not logged yet gifts and place them in the right box.

6. Try to do one night of Christmas Cheer as a family each week during December.

7. Try, once again, to get further on the HGP so there is less to do in December cleaning wise.

8. Bake with the boys!!!! I did not do any again this year.

9. Christmas cards: During the year update my Christmas card list and addresses. Start addressing the cards in August/September. Start working on Christmas card list in January on Rudy Day.

10. Make menus for the Christmas events WELL in advance. Menu selections should be made by end of October. Begin buying non perishable items in November and make sure to plan in a grocery shopping day close to Christmas. I need to simplify menus!!! Seemed like we were always preparing food and had way too many left overs and people became tired of eating them. Needed to set out veggie trays during the day to give people healthy snacking options. Lunches were primarily left overs. Went through a lot of plates!!! Went through a lot of drinks!!!! Breakfast needs to be easier too. Need to give more thought to the meals.

11. Keep up with the HGP and the house should be ready with the addition of touching up bathrooms and guest rooms.

12. Set aside a day in December to ‘bow’ presents.

13. Set up a craft day with the kids again in 2013 to make gifts for grandparents.

I also noted the guest schedule - who came in when and when they left so I can refer back to that.

Finally, I cut and pasted my holiday menu plan to the notes and made a note beside items I ended up not doing, items I needed to change quantities on for the future, items that went over well and not so well so I'll have all those notes at my finger tips next year.

 

[missjane]

Great job, ladies.

Annie, I have a sister from Texas that we always plan Christmas around because she is "coming home this year," and for the last 2 years has cancelled at the last minute. DD20 even got her work schedule fixed so she could be here when she said and could have gotten a better suited schedule. This year, I am not scheduling our Christmas around her anymore. If she comes and we can go at the time that's convenient for her...fine. If not, fine. She is retired. She isn't married, but has a SO whose family means more than her family, so I'm just generally fed up with the whole mess, so that is one change I am making.

1. No planning around sister.
2. Set a different date for Christmas with DS and his family. This year we did it on Christmas night. We eat Christmas lunch with extended family. No one eats much because we are all still full from lunch. We have done Christmas morning in the past, but that doesn't work either. Going to have to think on this one.
3. Buy all year for stockings. This is a big expense - around $50 per person. I really need to scale it back because we have 9 stockings.
4. I bought one major gift with a few small ones to go with it this year, whereas I usually do many gifts, but nothing overly expensive. I spend about the same both ways, but my kids seemed to like the one major best, so I will probably keep it that way.
5. Help my Mama more than I did last year. I was at her house wrapping presents for almost 3 hours until 1:30 Christmas Eve.
6. Buy Amazon cards way in advance. Best Buy was out or their machines were down everytime I went for almost two weeks. Buy those in July or August. Check on expiration, too.
7. Address cards starting in August while DD15 has piano lessons. I was doing the ones for people at church the last Sunday before Christmas.
8. Buy gifts for exchanges for parties/clubs early.
9. Save more $ to be used around the holidays than I did last year. As Ellen, said, there are always last minute things that add up in cost, plus it's a cushion for other unforeseen expenses.

I'm sure I will think of more.

 

[jinglemom]

I'm very suprised how relaxed this christmas season was for me.
i did very well with the cleaning plans this year and that helped alot. i ended up with no stressing about all that still needed to be cleaned for the first time ever.

I had an amazingly easy time with the gift giving this year. My kids had their list by December 2nd which helped alot (many years they don"t even know what they want), but I stumbled on several gifts for them plus some other people on my list early on when I wasn't even looking. I don't think that will ever happen again, but sure hope it does.

I did my Christmas cards last year before taking down the tree in January, I will do that again in the next day or two. All I will have to do in December is add the photo and send.

Usually my biggest disappointment is not having days to just bake with the kids, watch movies and just relax. I always ended up feeling like I was craming in what I could and not enjoying it. The biggest difference this year was less hockey. The past 3 years we had travel hockey tournaments all but one weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas (one year it was every single
weekend). Since I had 3 kids playing on at least two different age divisions, they rarely ended up playing the same day. The past few years I was gone 6-12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday every weekend but one leading up to Christmas. Now since there are so many tournaments, the team decided to commit to only 1-2 weekend tournaments a month. i only have 2 kids playing this year and they are in the same age division/team. So this year we only had one weekend tournament in December. This was a HUGE difference and gave me alot of time to bake, watch movies and just relax.

The best thing that made this Christmas season was a really sweet thing ds18 did. Since dh and my other 2 kids had gone to church one Sunday at an earlier mass, DS18 asked me if i wanted to go to church with him and his girlfriend at the evening mass. Ds18 stopped at the gas station after church, came out with hot cocoa, then surprised me by taking me to look at Christmas lights. He had been looking for a way that he could surprise me by doing this, since each year he knows I love to look at the lights but no one else is ever really interested in going. That really made my whole Christmas.

Next year I want to do better with finalizing my menus and baking lists earlier. Keep a better shopping list and not keep loosing it I also ended up running around trying to find boxes for the kids bigger items and a couple baskets last minute again and having trouble finding them (or at least inexpensive ones). i'm hoping to work that out a little better on the wrapping party dates. I also want to make items for the freezer for weekly meals and see how I can limit needing to do so much food prep on Christmas Eve. There are two people on my list that I think I will have a hard time finding a gift for next year, so I am going to start looking for ideas now.

 

[ChristmasPir8]

Hi ladies. I am at work so I didn't get through all the post but saw some wonderful idea. My word for the year is organize so I will sit down this weekend and see what I want to change. There was a lot of stress and add both jobs it didn't help. I didn't finish decorating and like Kim shoped last minute. ugh. I saw many areas of change.

One way I know I can prep ahead is I bought the paper for Christmas cards cards already. I need another pack of the blank envelopes and prob some wording but I have stamps and such also. That is my goal to get some started and finish as I go this year. Because of my storage locations wrapping early really isn't fesable for me.

I can't wait to read others ideas and get started on mine as well.

 

[missjane]

I noticed JingleMom's mentioning losing her shopping list. Something I started year before last (by accident really) was making an index card for each person I had to buy for. I was at work one day at my desk and thought of an idea for someone's gift, grabbed an index card from the basket on my desk, and the index card idea was born. I put a rubber band around them and kept them in my wallet. I always had them wherever I was, and the size was perfect. I even put my grocery list, menus, and master list on them. I could always pull them from my purse when I thought of ideas or could make a list at my desk and transfer before I left work. They're inexpensive and a convenient size to put in your pocket, too.

 

[Lolwlias]

The index card idea sounds like a pretty good one!

 

[Lana]

People always seem to laugh at me because I keep the 3 banks all updated on how many days until Christmas so they assume I am on top of it all. I have gotten a few people over the years into it more and my one friend is done and wrapped by Thanksgiving the last 2 years.

I need to:

1.) buy earlier with a few people

2.) cut back on some

3.) cut back on baking/candies and only do half as many items. Normally do 12 or 13 different things but was thinking of doing 6 to 7. You have everybody and their favorites tho.

4.) More decorating

5.) Our outside normally looks like Christmas vacation but had so many cords going to heck while decorating we did not light up outside. So have to get new heavy cords and going to get a couple more electric boxes put it.

6.) Would love to have a party for co-workers and friends

 

[Winged One]

Well, I have things I want to change for next year, for sure. This year was too busy (so what else is new in my life?!), and I also felt very let down by others. So next year, we will do our own thing more.

1. We will be travelling next year, rather than spending Christmas Day and DD's Birthday (26th) at home. So I need to be ready with things like having outfits completely planned out and ready to pack up, and presents wrapped (and hopefully some sent in advance).

2. I DID wrap a lot early this year, from late November, and that helped a LOT. I need to make sure I do that again, and include all items in the early wrapping.

3. I had a trip in late November, so I grabbed the cards I had saved from last year and the ones I made during the year, and wrote those on the flights. That worked well (I used to do this lots of years pre-DD when I had a lot of travel, using the "deadtime" on the plane). If not, I need to make sure I write a few a night from early November, particularly as there are a lot overseas these days.

4. As we will be travelling, I won't have to buy as much food or do the cooking (worked ok this year). But I will need to bring hostess gifts so I will need to think about that in advance.

5. I didn't get any time for baking or other treat making this year. I miss that. So I want to try to have time for making a few mince pies and cookies at worst.

6. As we will be travelling, I need to see early on if I can get a cheap place to stay as an independent "base" for us. It makes things a LOT easier (between all of us needing an escape option, even if we don't use it, particularly DD - and the fact that DD's birthday will be there and otherwise DM or DMIL will be hosting that and I hate being stuck in the middle of them). It would also mean that both DH and my siblings could get together and relax away from our DParents - they still don't see us as adults a lot of the time....

I am sure I will think of more, but that is at least a good start for me!

 

[Cathymac]

Great thread and good ideas here. I also use index cards but I buy one of the spiral bound sets. I keep it in my purse with all the things earlier listed-individual lists for each person, grocery lists, to do lists, etc.

This year was so much easier for us, simply because our resources were so limited because I'm still unemployed. We sat down with the kids and asked them this: do you want 1 really big gift and one or two smaller ones or a whole pile of smaller ones. They chose big. Easy peasy.

Also, DH's family chose to draw names for everyone over 18. That helped a bunch. Also, our oldest son purchased gifts for the names he drew himself since he's employed now.

The smaller gift list made wrapping easy also. I wrapped everything as I brought it home. The few things I didn't get wrapped DH wrapped Christmas Eve afternoon.

Even my decorating was easy. I pared way back, using only things I loved. Most of my decorations were more "wintery" than Christmas and will remain up throughout the winter. Love that!

I chose easy menus for the 2 events we hosted-spaghetti for DS' 20th birthday party and ham heated in the crockpot with easy make ahead sides for Christmas Eve dinner.

The thing I did not prepare for was the power outage that resulted from an ice/snow storm Christmas night. We have never been out longer than 8 hours before. I was planning on buying groceries on the 26th, but by the time we dug out and got to the store the shelves were bare. We're all electric so had no way to cook. Not fun. By the way-the storm was much worse than predicted. I'll be ready next time!

 

[snickerdoodle]

This was a wonderful Christmas for us time wise. I only worked one day between Dec 19 and Jan. 3. It was the most time off I have had at Christmas in years. We got to spend a lot of quality time with our kids and did a lot of fun things. We looked at Christmas displays one night. We saw The Nutcracker another day. Went out to dinner. Just a lot of fun things. I had everything but the cooking finished by December 19th because that is when our son and daughter-in-law came in from out if state. Our daughter and son-in-law moved in for several days too even though they live about 10 minutes from us. It was very quiet on Dec. 26 when everyone had to leave!
Another thing that worked out good was my extended family decided not to have a gathering on Christmas Eve. Our family has gotten very large and there is just not room in anyone's home to have 65 to 70 people. I will be working on finding a place to have a gathering maybe the weekend before or after Christmas.
I didn't send out Christmas cards this year. I just didn't take the time to do them and I feel bad about that. I will do them earlier this year.
I need to do better also on the stockings. I did them in a hurry and when I was taking a gift closet inventory I found several wrapped things that should have been in my husband's and son-in-law's stockings. I am not sure what was actually in them. I hope it wasn't lip gloss and body spray. At least they didn't mention it!

 

[Sugarplum]

I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now.

My house was cleaned and decorated by December 1st. That was wonderful. But then I didn't want to mess it up with the baking and wrapping, lol. My house is tiny and the only places I have to do projects in are the living room or kitchen. I think I just need to designate a weekend for baking and start earlier on the gifts/wrapping.

I had a hard time figuring out what to buy everyone this year, so I shopped late, then injured my finger and had a hard time finishing the wrapping. I ordered wine gift baskets to be sent to my siblings, but I missed buying things for my sisters and sending them a fun box to open. I need to start buying little things during the year and have them ready by early December. Doesn't need to be a lot or expensive but fun and festive.

I put a small lit Christmas tree in our bedroom on the dresser and that was lovely.

I treated myself to Baileys flavored coffee creamer from Thanksgiving until New Years. And I added red and green sugars to the white sugar bowl and enjoyed that every time I opened it. Little things that made me happy.

We also enjoyed egg nog, appetizers, champagne punch and lots of Christmas movies. Lots of Christmas cheer during the month of December. I need to balance that better with the work that needs to be done, lol.

Cooking - I have decided that I cannot cook a huge smorgasbord on Christmas Eve, trays of treats and snacks for Christmas morning/afternoon and then a big Christmas dinner. I enjoy all the prepping of the special foods, but then I'm cleaning the kitchen all evening and the next day. I'm going to have to really think about this and revamp it during the following year.

This year I was so tired on Christmas Eve. I didn't get the presents put out or the stockings filled until the morning. I was putting bows AND tags on the boxes when I put them out. That is another bad habit I need to break. When my kids were little I would wrap their gifts but wouldn't put tags on them so they didn't know which ones were for them. I would separate the gifts, and put an initial on the bottom of the box. The kids are now grown-ups and they don't snoop so I think I can tag the gifts now.

I was better prepared in some areas, and scrambling in others this Christmas. What I come away with for this past year is I really enjoyed the holiday season with my DH and that is very important.

I really enjoy the giving aspect and this year I didn't do what I normally do which I missed. I usually do a homemade family calendar, homemade music cd's, crafts/ornaments, baked goods, etc. and send them to my siblings. Last year was the first Christmas without our Mom and I went overboard with sentimental gifts. I even sent cookies to my Mom's friends who she gave to every year. This year I did nothing of the sort and my siblings commented that they missed the calendar, etc. At least I know my stuff was appreciated, lol. Sometimes I feel that I do all this stuff because I need to and it makes me feel good. I'm happy to know that my family enjoys it too.

So I guess in writing this all out, it shows I need to find the right balance of work/fun in all Christmas areas!

 

[Colleen in PA]

I was in great shape until a week before Halloween...we hosted DH's family for the weekend - they left on Sunday, against our recommendations, and hurricane Sandy hit on Monday...they all came back to our house on Tuesday since they were without power and stayed for 8 days. They left for 2 weeks and came back for 5 days for Thanksgiving. Needless to say, I didn't get much holiday prep done in that time frame!

Here is my debrief:

1.) shopping early worked well - EXCEPT for the boys - DS7 changed his mind several times...thankfully, I had my receipt envelopes in my NB and returns were not a problem.

2.) We had their holiday pictures taken 2 weeks later than usual...not a good idea. I am going back to the last week of October so that I can order, address and mail my cards the first week of December as I've done in the past. This year I was still addressing cards the weekend before Christmas!

3.) I had my Christmas Boxes wrapped and ready to go by December 1st. That was a huge help. Since they are essentially a 12 days of Christmas thing - albeit with different themes each year, having them done early gave me a lot more leeway in delivering them. This year's theme was Rediscovering the Magic...basically trying to recapture some of the joy and awe that we felt as children instead of just stress during the holiday season. I picked the theme last February, which was also quite helpful in spreading out the cost and enabled me to pick out things throughout the year. I have no idea what next year's theme will be, but I'm toying with Elves!

4.) I told my inlaws that I would not be filling stocking for everyone this Christmas (announced last July) since no one really seemed to appreciate it or contribute. I DID make stockings for my SIL and my 2 year old neice (and she made one for me and my boys). Wow! Everyone was a little jealous, I think. I also told them that I wasn't interested in picking names with the adults since my MIL didn't bother to get me a gift last year - she had picked my name - no apology, no excuses...it was odd. BIL decided to include me anyway when HE picked names for everyone...Grrr! I was assigned DH's younger sister - so I made HIM buy the present - but I did wrap it for him.

5.) Once again, I did not bake. That was a bummer, since I really enjoy making cookies. I had promised the boys that we would make Ninjabread cookies though, so we did that on Christmas Eve...I think a new tradition has been born! (pics on Facebook)

6.) As usual, my Brother and his wife cooked on Christmas Eve, my mom and aunt were responsible for breakfast Christmas Day and DH & I cooked Christmas dinner. We all took turns cleaning up and washing dishes - lovely!

7.) Decorating took much longer than usual and I forgot to take pictures of most of it. One thing that I noted was that my diningroom tree, which holds my grandmother's Waterford ornaments and my crystal snowflakes, was really getting too small. I ordered a 5 ft pre-lit tree from Home Depot after Christmas at 50%.

8.) After several years of listening to DH complain that the tree topper for our main tree wasn't lit (it is a giant silver snowflake), I finally found a solution! Restoration Hardware had strings of teeny tiny lights in 5ft and 10ft lengths on a thin wire. I spent almost 3 hours weaving the longer strand in and out of the snowflake and winding it over the entire surface. Bonus: It was battery operated and had a timer so that it would come on by itselt. Voila! No more complaining!

9.) I need to replace our remote for the tree lights so that no one has to climb behind it to plug in the lights. Sadly, they were all gone after Christmas.

10.) this one is hard to control - my best friend and I have always bought gifts for each other's children. Since she lives in Boston, we don't get to see each other very often, so this year we decided to go to Maine for a girls' shopping weekend. I happened to mention that DS3 loved a particular Thomas train and had asked Santa for it. When her package arrived, the boys were home and asked to open it. I was crushed to see that she bought my son the ONE thing he'd asked for - a shiny black Hiro train! I know it's silly, but it really bothered me (I'm over it now - sort of LOL!). From now on I'll be peeking under the wrapping!

11.) I did NOT get to watch White Christmas (my favorite) or The Santa Clause, etc. I did, however, get to enjoy some of the new Hallmark/Lifetime movies while wrapping upstairs after the boys were in bed. As a result, I did not put away my favorite Christmas movies and have decided that, time permitting, they will be Rudy Day treats for ME!

12.) We managed to squeeze in several fun events with the boys - our family reunion in NY, Sesame Place - A Very Furry Christmas, etc. And mom and I met several of my aunts and cousins in NYC for a Girls' Day (midweek). One thing that made a huge difference for me this year was an article written by Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project) for Better Homes & Gardens...she talked about the fact that she no longer expected her DH to participate in decorating the tree, etc. - even though she wished he liked those things as much as she does. She said she loves him just the way he is and that they are both happier now that she's accepted that he's not a "Holiday person". My aha lightbulb went on...I felt like she was writing about my life. DH isn't a Scrooge, but he would never be mistaken for a jolly elf, either. He just doesn't understand why Christmas is such a big deal to me (and my family) and until this year, we've tried to drag him along. No More. We actually left him home when we went to Sesame Place and guess what? We were all happier for it! He got some quiet time, and we all enjoyed the park without him constantly looking at his watch wondering how much longer we had to stay.

Overall, it was a great holiday...definite room for improvement as far as my HGP/CC tasks go, but I was way more prepared for the hectic season thanks to those plans and all of you wonderful MHHers! May 2013 bring you all much peace, joy and love!!!

 

[ChristmasPir8]

I have some thoughts I am still mulling over but my biggest is I told DH if I am back at school I don't know if I want to be working my second job come next Christmas. I was off 2 weeks at school but has so many hours (days, night, over nights....) over those I felt like I had no time to enjoy the holidays. Every spare time was spent decorating and shopping and last minute stuff.

I didn't get to bake this year and that was a dissapointment

I also gave up giving a gift to the women in my family. I used to make something but felt like no one cared so I quit. Dad makes a ornament every yr for the families and I love that he does but I felt what I did no one cared so why I should I bother?

Colleen-that's great advice about accepting DHs and others for who they are and doing it b/c we like it not b/c we want others to appreciate it.

 

[Kim Loves Snow]

Great debrief, Colleen! I understand why you felt the way you did about the train piece especially when ds is still so young and believing in Santa.

Robin-I have the exact same problem with the food prep around Christmas. Maybe you and I should brain storm some possible solutions!

 

[MinnieCo]

Colleen, I think I remember you mentioning the stockings last year. I'm glad you followed through. Why give them if they aren't appreciated. I did that with our eldest son this year. He's not here on Christmas morning and by the time he would come by, it was just "other" stuff to him. Once year I put a traveling deodorant in there and he was like "so you trying to tell me something". Sad, but true. My daughter on the other hand, she loves stockings and I'll probably have to fill one till she's 40...LOL

 

[MinnieCo]

Oh..and Ninja cookies. How fun. I totally wanted to make them for the Tae Kwon Do kids, but my daughter stopped training before I was able to. I did tell the owner about the cookie cutters though, knowing she'd love the idea.