Not to alarm you but.....

There are only 81 days until Christmas. I know, crazy right? :)

There's this really neat website called 101 days until christmas that started on Sept 15th, giving you a daily tip on how to be prepared and ready for christmas in 101 days. I don't check it daily, but I have been reading it and it has a lot of great ideas.

Now I am a Christmas fanatic, I know this. And I tend to go overboard and crazy during the holiday season. So this year I am going to try to do something different. I want to focus on the traditions and meaning of Christmas more than the commercialized & materialistic aspects.

I love to spoil people, giving gifts is one of my favorite things ever, so you can see how this makes Christmas a little crazy. I always get the kids way more than they could possibly need. And each year I say I will do better, but it always seems to fall through. So this year I have already put a limit on the number of gifts. We will get the kids 5 gifts and that is all. Which is plenty, but they are used to getting like a dozen or more from us. So I have been preparing them for this, lol. And since I am limited in what I can get them, I am putting way more thought into what those gifts should be, quality not quantity. Yes they will love every new toy marketed and geared towards their age/gender, but what will be the BEST gift to get? That's what I am trying to figure out.

Then I also want to kids to learn how to make gifts, and focus on homemade gifts. So the majority of the gifts if not all of the gifts, that we give other people this year, friends & family, will be homemade gifts. Which is why we are starting to get things together now, because that takes alot of work and time. But I want them to be creative and have fun with the gift process.

Now I will still make a big deal out of all of our Christmas traditions, I want decorating the tree, and picking out our yearly ornament to be magical and special, not something we rush through and check off of our list. I want to focus on experiences and making memories and traditions this year. I want to enjoy the process and my family through it all.

So yes, Christmas is 81 days away, and I want to enjoy every minute of the countdown and not be rushed or stressed out or chaotic. Wish me luck. :)