I am dreaming of a heartfelt Christmas

( from: myplaceoryours)

It seems like Christmas is right around the corner especially when you are tooling around the internet, blogs are filled with Christmas ideas already. Of course this makes since when most of the blogs I read are stay at home moms that make everything and are trying to make and do great things as frugally as possible. And this takes time people. If you have never made homemade gifts or decorations, or tried to pull off a Christmas with little money you have no idea how much time and work this is to pull off. So As I am looking around for great inspiring ideas on the dear blogs I follow. I came across Roots and Wings blog. It is new to me . But I enjoyed spending some time there seeing what she is all about. And I came across her 8 weeks of heartfelt and homemade holidays Just reading about it Puts you in the right frame of mind to gear up for the holiday season. She asked what are your priorities for the Christmas season this year. I have been thinking about this allot this year. As I am in a nesting mood lately. Or as I say I want to circle the wagons , meaning making a circle of wagons to keep my family in and safe and keep everything else out.
This tends to happen when ever we have had a very busy time or stressful time. It makes me want to circle the wagons pull what I love close and ignore the rest.

My priorities for Christmas are always the same I would say. I want to have allot of family time .
I want to watch Christmas movies all snuggled on the couch, drink hot chocolate after being outside in the cold. Having a home filled with home cooking and plenty of baking. looking at Christmas lights, seeing Santa. My ultimate vision in my head would be my home decorated and the mess cleaned up, we always decorate together but its the mess after that, that distorts that image. So in this image the house is decorated There is Christmas music playing, and Everyone is around in our small Living room and dining room either reading, working on a craft, or baking. But we are all together just content in our little world we have here. o.k in my image its calm and fairly quiet but that is so not reality around here. Our house is never quite if we are all in one room it is loud crazy and funny. Never a dull quiet moment around here. But with 6 kids what should I expect.... Not quiet. So I am happy when its all noisy and crazy as long as it is happy noise. I leave out the shopping part in this image all together if you didn't notice because it is the most stressful part of Christmas Its never ending , the wrapping is never ending. I use to really enjoy it and the wrapping but I am past all that . Again the whole trying to pull of a great Christmas with little money is allot of work and can be exhausting. So in my image it is all done and wrapped. This year I want to find some new ways to have the Jesus Christ in our Christmas this year, Something interesting and truly meaningful to all the kids It is hard to do these kind of things which such a wide age span in kids, so I am on the lookout for this this year. That is my project.

Now you have seen my vision now for some reality that we do do and is a MUST DO every year And it is a big chunk of my vision. We have our Annual ______ Christmas Slumber Party. We started it when our oldest was about 4 ( he will turn 20 in Jan) so it has been going on for awhile now.
We start out the party with putting t0gether a gingerbread house it is usually not ready for a magazine cover when finished but certainly done by 6 kids. ( last year we tried to make a rice krispy house it was a disaster within minutes!! then the scavenger hunt starts we buy 3-4 items for each kid ( for $1 or less each) and we have clues for them to follow around the house to find their gift. It is a BIG deal around here. The present itself has very little to do in the fun. This takes awhile. And while they are doing this I am cooking our buffet or unhealthy foods for this party. we have our favorites that we must have such as reindeer poop dip ( cream cheese and chili ) , pizza rolls, deep fried ravioli, cheese dip, veggies w/ ranch, chick nuggets, cheese , sausage and crackers. Its a big buffet that we can always eat the leftovers the next day. We then have a long list of movies to watch the most important Muppet Christmas carol, Jingle all the way, Grinch both cartoon and movie. polar express, elf, I'll be home for Christmas. As you can see we have to start early and stay up till weeee hours in the morning. I would say this is my favorite Christmas party , and the one I stay up for the latest. If the kids write at school about their favorite thing to do at Christmas time this is what they write about. My husband and I are already making plans on how to do this when they are all older and grown. We have ideas like scavenger hunts they have to drive around town for. And ginger bread house competitions with prizes.
I am in the Christmas spirit already and I am still deluded that if I get a jump start I will have more down time in December. HAhAhahah . But until Dec actually gets here and I am behind then I can tell myself that.
Actually until Nov 27th I can tell myself that.
It is like anything you do before thanksgiving you are on the ball, ahead of the game. and black Friday you are on time and that Sat you are officially behind in the game. We get one day to be one time!!!