Nope, this isn’t another article about left-over turkey recipes, getting your guest room organized, or this season’s hottest decorating trends.  Instead, this is about how to actually enjoy the holidays, and two little forms that might help you do this.

(I could insert a holiday photo here, but I’m not going to torture you with early holiday mania.) 

Do we really need one more to do list for the season?  Well, these forms aren’t about getting more done.  In fact, if possible, I’d like to do less this year, and enjoy it more.  I’m a working mom with two tiny children and a desire for a home that passes for clean. Do I need more stress in my life?  No.  What I need is to remember the five year rule and build my life around it:

If it is likely to matter five years from now, then it is probably worth doing or paying attention to.

So this year, I’m trying to spend more time on crafting holiday memories, instead of just getting through the holidays.  These forms should help me, just by writing things down and scheduling memory-making events before they pass me by.  You’re welcome to use them, too.

The first form is a 2+ Month Holiday Calendar Page.  Since I’ve gone to an electronic calendar, it always seems like there should be another week in between today and next week.  So I’ve created a view of the calendar that takes us right through the first week in January, where all of our social commitments and wishes are getting posted.  This is getting clipped to all the party invites and newspaper clippings of things that I want to do.

The second form is to do list of a different kind for the holidays.  It seems like our holidays have way more Santa than Jesus.  I wanted to look for opportunities to introduce more angels, Jesus, and our true holiday heritage.  So I modified a template so to list out four types of events for this year’s holidays:

• Family traditions.  For instance, I love to have matching holiday pajamas for the whole family, but they are extremely hard to come by without paying a fortune.  These can’t wait until the last minute.
• Entertaining Angels.  You might know the Bible verse Hebrews 13:1, which says Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.  We may have a party, or we may take a meal to a family.  I want to be ready to entertain angels.
• Praise the Lord.  Here’s where I’m looking for ways to make Christmas more about Jesus for my kids.  Since they love animals, I figure a visit to a live nativity would be amazing for them.
• Can’t Miss Events.  We love to do things like visit a live reindeer and learn about them.  Elmwood Park Zoo has had them in years past.  We’ll probably be seeing ours at Hershey Park this year.

If these couple of forms help, that’s great.  If they just get you thinking in a different way about what needs to get done this season, that’s fine, too.  As always, I wish you peace and purpose.

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