Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The countdown

Well, I guess you have noticed it's November now.  It's time to turn the calendar to a new page on the wall...and it's time to start the...drumroll please...."the countdown".  How many shopping days are there til Christmas?  

If you are like me you have already started to pick up small gifts - or started to browse through the stack of catalogs coming in the mail. Have you started a list yet?  Have you thought about what is new and hot this year?  I try to prepare the list early, and  to schedule out the gift buying so I can stay away from malls and reduce the stressful last minute shopping.   My mantra each Christmas is "Remember the reason for the season" - and don't stress!

My plan is to have most presents purchased by the second week of December.  That gives me plenty of time to wrap, and to doublecheck the list (yes, we try and keep the two daughters' gifts even in number and dollar value.)   Hubby always shops some too (he actually likes it! crazy guy) and so we end up with a huge pile of wrapped boxes and decorative bags under the tree.  

Speaking of tree:  we have an artificial one since I have allergies and it is also less messy to cleanup and put away.  This will be the first year when daughter #2 won't be home early enough to help decorate it. ) :   It's been tradition that she hang the special ornaments:  the ones we got when the girls were little (some homemade - I love those)  and the ones we bought on vacations, or from other places we lived.   Then I come through and add all the "filler" on the tree and balance the ornaments out.  When do you put your tree up?  Please NOT before Thanksgiving!!! One holiday at a time is all I can take!  I try and wait til mid-December to put ours up.  If  the tree goes up too early it loses some magic by Christmas Eve.  My blog, my opinion.

I have a question. Are Christmas cards becoming obsolete?  I mean the ones you mail out with a greeting, and a family update letter, and a picture.   So many of my friends and family are now on Facebook with me and they see what our family is doing all year through.  There's really no longer a need to "fill them in" or to send pictures to show how we have changed.    So, what do you think?  Just send cards to the people who have yet to get online?  

Well, there's time to think about it all still.  Weeks actually.  Advent (the church's time of preparation before Christmas and the start of the church year) is 4 Sundays/weeks leading up to December 25th. So, I think that should be plenty of time for me too.  Right?   Ha!!

I hate to admit it, my countdown has already started.    Take a deep breath, Marla, and think about Thanksgiving...    don't rush, don't stress, don't prepare for Christmas yet.  

Oh - yes. There will definitely be more blogs on this subject.  

 

1 comment:

  1. You are too cute Marla! I always like to receive Christmas cards by snail mail, although there are fewer every year. I confess I don't get them out every year, but I always want to! And since you get your shopping finished so early you have plenty of time to send cards :-D
    I still put up a 'real' tree, but the wreath for my front door is now artificial - and easy to put up as my first decoration right after Thanksgiving.

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