Christmas Miracle

The Christmas miracle I seek and fail to see every year is a simple Christmas season.  I want to sit by the tree and my imaginary fireplace, cookies in the oven and hot cocoa in my hand.  I'm involved in a good book while the children merrily sing carols and laugh and play.  Oh, and the house is spotless. 

I don't think this is too much to ask.  I'm getting closer each year.  I'm a notoriously early Christmas shopper.  I've bought things for Christmas before last year's Christmas.  I'm always at the day-after-Christmas sales.  I love a good deal on a great item.  But most of all, I love feeling like a squirrel with its cheeks full of nuts before the snow starts to fall.  So this is my first strategy--don't spend my Christmas season in the stores.  I get it done beforehand.  In order not to miss some of the Christmas decorations and that festive hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, we always have a few odds and ends to buy up during the month of December.  But while everyone else is fighting traffic, parking, long lines, and the cold, I am (see paragraph 1).

Strategy #2: get those neighbor and friend gifts delivered early in the month of December.  In years past I have been hours up until Christmas still driving those plates of goodies around in my car, turning corners slowly, telling the kids not to drop the plate but also to hurry fast.  I've also spent entire days creating and compiling and delivering those plates so that when it's over I am near sugar-coma (can you really bake without doing that???) and also wishing I didn't have so many friends.  So I have learned to pace myself.  I make a master list of who we'd like to give something to.  Then I enjoy baking something each day that I find time.  I take something to several people on the list each day.  Eventually I get done, but no marathons.  And when I start early enough, I still have a couple of weeks before Christmas gets here.

Strategy #3 is one I'm still working on.  That dreaded Christmas letter.  I never start early enough.  I never know how to start it.  And I hate doing the family picture to go along with it.  I've considered abandoning the tradition, but I value those letters as a piece of our family history.  Maybe I need to set a goal to have the letter started before Thanksgiving. 

Strategy #4 is how I handle the shipping.  With 15 siblings between my hubby and I, mailing all those gifts would be disastrous to our budget.  So, again, I plan ahead.  With a family reunion each year for one side or the other I can conveniently eliminate the need to mail Christmas gifts to one side of the family.  So I endure the looks I get from handing out Christmas packages in the summer.  With the rest of the family I have gifts ready and wrapped and labeled.  Sometime during the year someone comes through for a visit or someone nearby is going to see someone far away.  I hand out my gifts and ask them to take them in their luggage when they go to see someone on the other side of the country.  And then I sit back and relax.  This year my side of the family decided to draw names and I am loving it!  We had to buy one gift instead of three; now that is simplifying!  I'm thinking right now about all those people standing in line at the post office.
 
This year we had a family discussion and each person got to suggest a Christmas activity they really wanted to do.  I want to avoid the last minute effort to squeeze in that one thing that someone had their heart set on, when all I really want to do is (see paragraph 1).  I had the calendar open and we scheduled each event right then.  So between watching "Elf," sledding, baking cookies, and making a gingerbread house there should be plenty of down time to (see paragraph 1).  I just have to figure out that pesky spotless house thing...and the missing fireplace...and the cheerful children.  I'll get there.