Making Room For Christmas

In case you haven't noticed, it's already mid-November and Christmas will soon be upon us! I'm really not ready to think about Christmas or even begin planning...I'd much rather focus on November and Thanksgiving. But there is one thing I am ready to do when it comes to planning for Christmas.

I'm ready to make room for Christmas and all the season brings. Usually we bring out decorations, buy gifts and bring new things into our home.

Between now and then, let's make some room.

Let's go through our pantries, our closets, our toys and get rid of what we don't need. If we have some extra room, then we can receive gifts with joy and appreciation.

Every Friday between now and then we'll gather here to report how we've done. I'll give you weekly mini-missions and challenges that you can work on for the week.

For this week, take a little time to prepare and plan what you want the month of December to look like in your home and life.

Here are some things to consider:

• Do you want to have an special advent reading plan for yourself or your kids or your family? If so, what will it be? Do you need to do anything to prepare for it?
• Are there special holiday books you want to read? Do you need to order them from the library?
• Are there special holiday events you want to attend? Do you need to buy tickets or make arrangements?
• Do you want to host any gatherings or parties? What planning do you need to do for those? Who will you invite? What will you serve?
• Will you be doing a lot of baking? What supplies do you need to buy? What do you already have?
• How and when do you want to decorate for the holidays?
• Need to do some shopping? For whom? Where? Make a list and a budget.
• Making gifts? What is your timeline?
• Need to ship gifts to family that lives out of state or country? What is your timeline?
• Do Christmas cards and letters need to be written and sent? Do you need to have a family photo taken to include in the card or letter?

Whew....that seems like a lot and I'm sure I didn't cover everything.

In addition to taking some time to plan and write out what December and Christmas will look like this year, I also challenge you to find 5 things to get rid of.  Be sure to come back next week and let me know how you did!