The Holidays are coming!

I can hardly believe that we are at the middle of September! October is a busy month for us, as it is our anniversary month, both of our boys were born in October, and my Brother-in-law's birthday is in October. Then comes Thanksgiving, and then comes Christmas! By the time Christmas comes, I can be exhausted if I'm not careful.

Growing up, the focus on Christmas was most definitely on Jesus, and celebrating His birth. We were never raised to believe in Santa Clause, and until I was in high school we didn't even have a Christmas tree. Stockings were never hung up on the fireplace, but we did have little red booties that my Grandma had made us that had each of our children's names on it. Some years my Mom would fill the little booties with some candy, and that made us excited. :-) Every year we would turn on Christmas music and fill the air with yummy scents from cookies. We still continue to do that to this day.

My Mom was always really diligent about starting devotionals at the first of December, and bringing our thoughts to the birth of our Lord the whole month. Almost every day we could be found singing at the piano the wonderful Christmas hymns, and creating many special memories.

While I'm looking forward to Christmas this year, I know it will be dramatically different for me as my Mom won't be here to share in it with us. I need to pay even closer attention this year to actively doing things with my family to enjoy the whole month, or I will get caught up in being depressed. My Mom always made the holidays so special, and her enthusiasm over the joy of the month was catching!

One thing I'm looking forward to using is The 12 week holiday planner. I have already looked through my copy, and it looks excellent! This is a planner that starts the first week in October, and goes through the new year. It is 171 pages long, and it walks you through every step in getting ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and your New Years Eve party in a calm, organized way. Plus the e-book includes lots of yummy recipes, crafts you can make as gifts, coloring pages, journaling pages, and more! This e-book was created by Sheri Graham, and Marilyn Moll of Urban Homemaker. I grew up with the Urban Homemaker catalog coming to our home, and I love to support anything that has her name on it!

You can order your copy for $12.95, and once you print it off, this is an investment you can use over and over again each year! My Mom always had a Christmas notebook, and a Thanksgiving Notebook to use each year, and I plan on doing the same thing. Time has a way of slipping away, and before you know it the new year will be here again. Don't look back with regret on how you spent your holiday season! Grab hold of it, and purpose in your heart to spend this time with your family, your friends, and building memories with your children. And most importantly, plant in your children's heart the meanings of the holidays, and who we are most thankful to during the holiday season, Jesus Christ. He has done so much for us, the least we can do is stop and celebrate His birth, his death and his Resurrection. Yes, we tend to celebrate all of those things during the Christmas month. The wonderful life of our Lord started with His birth, but we love to continue the story with our children and remind them of the other marvelous things that go with the rest of the story!

How do you celebrate Christmas? Do you have any special traditions you do year after year?