I used to always be on time for everything, and procrastination was never part of my vocabulary. Then I had kids. Everything changed. Now I’m frequently late and I tend to leave things to the last minute. But I’m working on it, and I’m certainly getting better. For now, I’m thankful for services that help people like me. Although I seriously procrastinated on some Christmas gift-purchasing, I didn’t have to worry about running out of time to do wrapping. I think Mastermind Toys gets some serious business because of their free gift wrapping year-round. But here’s a little known fact: Chapters also provides gift wrapping – you just have to go to the children’s area. They’ll wrap anything purchased in store. So, today’s nice thing is free gift wrapping for the procrastinators, lazy, non-crafty, harried, busy, or all of the above.
Another nice thing: homeschooling friends. Today the kids played all day at their friends’ house while I got some work done. Tomorrow friends from New Zealand are coming for a playdate before heading back home – they were here for 6 months, and it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long! It’s so nice for the kids to have friennds that they can play with anytime.
One more nice thing: Only one day left ’till Christmas 🙂 In Brazil, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas day. It was the one day a year when we were allowed to stay up late when we were kids. We’d have a late dinner, then go to midnight mass, and open presents when we returned. My kiddos are too little for this late night tradition (and our church doesn’t have a midnight mass), but we’ll still be celebrating on the 24th at home. We intend on having pajama day, eating a special lunch and dinner, and spending lots of time together as a family. Maybe we’ll even watch a Christmas movie. We’ll open presents after dinner. I look forward to giving everyone their stocking gifts as well.
The tradition in our family, since Dan and I got married, is that we are not allowed to buy anything for stockings. We have to make something. The reasoning behind this is twofold: one, I did not grow up with stockings; it’s simply not something we did in Brazil. Secondly, I find that stockings are largely an excuse to make people spend even more money on even more useless stuff. By establishing our handmade stocking gift tradition, we keep more stuff out of the landfill, save some money, and give something truly from the heart. It can be as simple as a handwritten letter or as elaborate as a cross-stitched piece. All that matters is that you spend your time creating something for someone else. In this house, other than our oldest, nobody is very crafty, so expectations are low and we’re happy to see what everyone comes up with.
Although Christmas is not my favourite holiday (Easter is), I’m still very much looking forward to celebrating with my little family.
How do you celebrate Christmas?
Thank you to Dream Big Printables for this post’s beautiful image. Check out their wonderful art.