Holiday Hints 2025 #1

 Holiday Hints

• Keep track of what you spend on the upcoming holidays. Then divide that number by 12, and start saving for the 2026 holidays, saving each month.
• If you shop year round, make a note somewhere of what you have bought, who it is for, and where you stored it.
• If you buy gift wrap, ribbon, holiday decorations, paper goods, etc. on sale after Christmas this year, make a note of what you bought and where you stored it.
• Make notes of activities and traditions that worked well this year and those that stressed you out or were not worth the trouble. Note ways you can reduce stress next year if it’s something you want to do again. For example: if you want to take Christmas card pictures and everyone was crying and you didn’t have an outfit for one person that matched everyone else, for next year think about this in September. Go ahead and choose/purchase the clothes you need. Schedule a time to take the picture. Or you ran out of large gift bags on December 24—make sure you buy plenty at the after Christmas sales, or start collecting them as soon as you see them in the stores, and buy 2-3 more than you think you will need.
• As you buy electronic toys for gifts, keep a running list how many and what type of batteries you need. Make sure to buy them before Christmas.

Choosing An Endpoint To Your Day

 Choose an endpoint to your day and stick to it. 

Just as work outside the home has a quitting time, our work inside our home—our homemaking and parenting— needs to have a daily quitting time. In one sense, our work of parenting and homemaking never ends. However, I suggest to you that you draw an imaginary boundary to your day. Maybe it’s after supper and the dishes are done. Close your kitchen. Turn off the kitchen lights. Purpose to not do any more housework that day. Just bathe the kids and put them to bed….but no more work. 

Give yourself some margin to enjoy your children and husband in the time between dinner and bath/bedtime. Be present. Not on your phone. Not doing laundry. Not paying bills. 

Now you may be asking, “When am I going to do the laundry/pay the bills/make lunches for tomorrow/clean my bathrooms/etc., if I stop my work each night before bed. I need to work right up until the time my head hits my pillow!” You will have to 1) be creative and 2) let some things go until the next day or the weekend if you are working outside the home. 

Do what you can before supper and during the supper clean up, and then just be done. I think you will all benefit from some down time (to watch a show, read, do a craft, talk to your husband, etc.) at the end of your day.