Mondays with Martha: Planning for Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...at least, in the stores it is! I loved how many people posted Nordstrom's notice about not getting out the Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. I think most people are on the same page about that, but somehow the stores still try to push it on us early.


I do like to plan ahead for Christmas, even though we don't pull out the decorations or Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. Mostly I like to find ways to enjoy the season and avoid stress. So, here is what I do to plan ahead. Maybe there's something here for you to try this year.

1) Shop early. I like to get my shopping done before Thanksgiving. That way when December rolls around I can focus on the parties, baking, and traditions without stressing about shopping on top of that. There are usually a few straggler gifts that I end up buying the week before Christmas, but the more I get done early, the happier I am.

2) Pick a limited number of cookies to bake. Last year I let each child choose one recipe to bake with mom, and then we spread that out over a few days so we could really enjoy the process and enjoy each type of cookie without suger overload.

3) Let the kids decorate. I used to get out all the decorations, and then for a few years I only got out about half, and then last year I got out all the boxes and let the kids go to town. It worked out great. No one was complaining about "where's the such-and-such" because they were able to get out the decorations that were important to them, and I didn't have to do much of the work.

4) Put your traditions on the calendar. Some years I figured "oh, well, sometime this month we'll drive around and look at lights," and then it didn't happen. Last year I planned ahead and got things on the calendar, and we were able to fit in everything we wanted to do.

5) Make sure you have nativity sets the kids can play with. We have a little people one, a playmobil one, and several wooden ones--and the kids play with all of them at the same time. I'm pretty sure they aren't sticking to the story, since they have multiple Marys and Josephs, but they are on some level engaging with the true meaning of Christmas.

6) Think about what you could bake ahead in November or early December. Some coffee cakes and quick breads freeze well, and cookie dough can be frozen. I like to partially cook the apples for pies on the stove and then freeze them. Buy a bottom crust, throw in the apples, add a crumb topping and you have a wonderful French apple pie with very little work. For that matter, freezing some meals ahead of time would help in December too! That way you don't have to cook dinner and do cookies on the same day.

7) Find ways to simplify extended family gift-giving. I personally love to give gifts, so skipping extended family gifts altogether doesn't appeal to me. But I do like to simplify. Possibilities include: giving a family gift (game, gift card, etc.), choosing one category of gift and giving the same thing to everyone (Christmas item, kitchen gadget, food item, etc.), giving charity gifts in their name, or doing a name exchange with a theme. Last year and this year we're following some friends' example and exchanging names and then getting that person a book or movie that we ourselves have read/seen this past year that we think they would enjoy. It's fun, challenging, and you have limited options to choose from.

8) Plan ahead for what type of advent tradition you want to do that will focus your thoughts on the true meaning of Christmas. Maybe you want to try something new this year--a Jesse tree or one of these books. I try to buy a new Christmas picture book each year. But our favorite is still this one:


It has beautiful door illustrations for each day of December, and you open each door and read one verse from the Christmas story. By the end of the month you're reading the whole story each night as you open each door. Our kids love it!

So there you have my ideas to help make December more sane. With all the time you'll have left over, you can make these slippers from Martha.
The picture just screams "easy project! Nothing could go wrong here!" to me.
















How about you? What do you do to plan ahead for Christmas?

Halloween Candy Overload and Holiday Craft Sale

I woke up this morning determined that I would not eat any more of that tempting Halloween candy. We have buckets and buckets of it! I think it's time to donate the remainder to the troops or the food pantry or the music teacher. Or maybe make some brownies and cut up candy bars to sprinkle on top. But first we did this.

I saw this on facebook, posted by a friend of a friend (Do you find it a little scary that I can see pictures of people I don't know? I do!), so I can't take credit but I also can't give credit where credit is due--I don't know the original source.

Anyway, the idea is that you make a countdown to Thanksgiving calendar, and each day as the child takes a piece of candy, they have to write down something that they are thankful for on that day. I'm hoping that this will help us be thankful for the whole month, not just one day or one week, and also force us to find more things we're thankful for than "mom and dad, food, and friends"--all great answers, but I'd like us to dig a little deeper.

For us this is particularly useful this year because Dad is going on a trip to China and gets back on Thanksgiving eve. So it doubles as a "how many days until Dad gets home" chart as well.

Before I forget, let me also post a picture of some of the jewelry I have for sale this Friday. Prices range from $15-$80

It's not a great picture, but it gives you an idea of what I've been working on. Here are the details--if you're in the area, please come! It's always fun to see what people make, the food is always delicious, and the conversation is always interesting.

3rd Annual Handmade Open House--drop by anytime between 7 and 10pm to browse lovely handmade items from several ladies, enjoy yummy food and drinks, and catch up with friends and neighbors! Address is 205 N Sleight St, Naperville (60540)

Wordless Wednesday

Limitations

Sheldon Vanauken wrote in his book A Severe Mercy about a dog named Gypsy.
  "Gypsy, a furry, wheat-coloured collie, found herself in possession of several hundred acres of woods, full of good things like rabbit trails and streams and intriguing burrows, and she delighted in it all. She was given a comfortable bed and good meals. Perhaps she rather took it all for granted. Of obligations there were few, and they not heavy. She was, to be sure, supposed to worship her Master and be right joyous to be with him. She knew she must not chase the chickens. While she must obey certain commands--to follow, to come, to lie down--there were no unreasonable ones, and no tricks. After all, to obey and to worship were natural to her dog nature."

Vanauken goes on to describe how one day Gypsy sees a rabbit and hears her master call at the same instant, and after rationalizing her decision, runs after the rabbit. Then follows guilt, and then further disobedience because she has tasted "freedom." One day Gypsy runs away for good and is unable to find her Master and the comforts of food and a warm bed ever again.

The story is a wonderful picture of the Fall, wherein mankind chose sin rather than obedience to God. We see a metaphor for the false freedom found in sin and the true freedom found in obedience to God. But I think the illustration can be taken farther than that. I think God sets limits for us in many areas of life. He puts things in our lives that keep us safely in His will and help us avoid running away into the dangers and pitfalls of life outside of His will. Here are a few categories of limitations that I've thought of.

1) Time. We all have the same amount of hours each day, and once those hours are used up, they are gone. The more responsibilities we have, the less time there is to spend as we wish.

2) Finances. Obviously.

3) Circumstances. This could include things like the size or layout of our house, or the number of children you have, or whether or not you work outside the home. It could include things like relatives who need a lot of help from you or having a long commute to and from work. These are things that you can't change on a whim and in some ways limit you. I'd also include in this category the personalities of the people you live with--which you can't change at all! There are probably things about your spouse or kids and their needs that limit your own options.

4) Health. Some of us are generally healthy with a few sick days here and there. Some of us care for ailing loved ones, and that limits us. Some of us have chronic or terminal diseases that affect every area of our lives. And all of us have our own unique energy level that provides the boundaries of what we can or cannot do.

5) Personality and gifting. There are some things we are good at, and some things we are not. There are some things about our personality that make certain tasks difficult or impossible. If God made you an introvert, he may call you to stretch yourself in areas of sociability but he will not call you to live as an extrovert. If God made you tonally challenged, one of your limitations it that the church choir is not where you should volunteer your time.

I do have a point here. Sometimes it's easy to be discontented with where we are or what we have. We get an idea of something we'd like to do, and then realize that we can't do it. Our house isn't big enough to entertain all those people. Or we don't have time and energy to do all the things we want to do for our kids. Or we just aren't good at the thing we wish we were good at. Or our schedule just will not allow us to do this or that fun thing we really want to do.

We can either be constantly frustrated with those things, or we can think of those limitations as healthy boundaries that God has put in our lives for this time. We may not like our boundaries, we may pray for them to change, and we may eventually be called to move the boundaries. But in the end, we all have some limitations that we need to live with. And I think the secret to being content with our lives is recognizing our limitations and then accepting them as from the hand of God.

That doesn't mean we turn into a doormat and never try to better our circumstances. But it does mean that we pray for wisdom to know when is the right time to push the boundaries.

Here's an example. I used to feel guilty whenever my girls were invited to slumber parties because I did not want to reciprocate the invitation. But recently I've realized that the reason I don't want to host sleepovers is because of my limitations: five children, small house, baby sleeping in the basement where we would have to host the sleepover, etc., etc. And I can see that those limitations will change over time as we finally get the baby sleeping upstairs and as we get past the stage where the four-year-old wakes us up multiple times a week to tell us he has to go to the bathroom ("um...then go!"). So for now I accept that limitation and move forward without the guilt.

Or as another example, just this week we got rid of some furniture. We used to feel like we needed to have seating available for everyone who might possibly come over. But now we realize that all that furniture was cluttering up our everyday lives (in other words, it was using too much of our limited space), and that on the rare occasions we have more people over than we have seating for, we can use kitchen chairs or sit on the floor. We're learning to live within the limits of the home God has given us.

I often feel limited by money, and I can either be frustrated that I can't afford thus-and-so or I can accept that financial limitation as a signal that we are better off without that item.

I think there's a further benefit to naming our limitations and seeing them as gifts from God: not only can we learn to be content with our limits, but sometimes they can offer us a chance for creativity. When we're busy wishing our lives away, we may miss an opportunity to fulfill our desires in some other way. If I stop being frustrated that I can't host the cast parties or youth group events, I may discover that I can host more people for a meal if I put up an additional table in the living room. Or I can wait until summer and have events outside. I may not be able to afford an awesome American Girl whatever for Christmas, but maybe I could enjoy making a substitute. My limitations don't have to be negatives--they can be turned into positives.

It's been very freeing for me to look at my circumstances as gifts from God rather than hindrances. He has given me my circumstances, and that means that I can do everything He is calling me to do within the limits of my time, health, finances, circumstances, and personality. What a blessing that He has put those limits in my life for a reason!

One of the Bible verses that my dad often quotes is Psalm 16:5-6: "LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." (NIV) I've always thought that "boundary lines" in this passage refers to these types of things--those circumstances and limitations that are a natural part of our lives. May we, like the psalmist, affirm that those boundary lines are pleasant.

What about you--are there limits your thankful for? Or limits that you've been fighting and need to accept and move on from?