SIMPLIFY

I love that word...simplify. To me it conjures up thoughts of calm, ease, serenity...But Thanksgiving and Christmas  are just around the corner and  I have to admit that these loveliest of Holidays can be anything but simple.   Simplify is defined in the dictionary as: to make less complicated, clearer, easier. Is this how you feel as the Holidays loom closer?  Me either.  But  I believe there are things we can do to make life less complicated and thus simplify our lives at this busiest time of the year.

I bring this up today because the busiest time of the year for me is after Halloween through New Years. Yeah,  it seems to get longer as Christmas decor comes out earlier and earlier in stores while I'm still getting ready for Halloween! It seems like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are all running together sometimes. Hallothankmas Years you could call it!

So this year I'm once again trying to be intentional about simplifying the holidays to "what matters most". And I'm starting to think about it NOW!  Just in case it gets too busy to think about it later. Hah! So here are just a few things I'm going to do:

FOR THANKSGIVING:

1) Focus on the most important things ---  For me that is being reminded that this holiday is about giving thanks to God.

2) Simplify my decorating ---  I'll keep the decor to a minimum bringing in fresh natural items

3) Shared cooking responsibilities  --- Have everybody bring something to share for the meal, which is always at our house because we have the most room. We've kind of done this anyway...

FOR CHRISTMAS:

1) Focus on the Reason For the Season---  Jesus' birth

2) Simplify my decorating---I don't have to use ALL my Christmas decorations. I'll  keep them simple and won't feel the need to buy new. I'll use natural items.

3) Limit activities--- I'll keep only those activities that focus on the reason we celebrate.

4) Won't overdue gift purchases---I'll make an effort to not go overboard in spending...and time spent shopping.

I have a Pinterest board of ideas to Simplify Christmas. I'm going to open it up as a Community Board and I hope you'll add some ideas to it! I'll also share some of them on this blog beginning after Thanksgiving. I'm focusing on one Holiday at a time!

For those of you who have time to do lots of decorating and  more,  that's wonderful! There's no reason to cut back. I'm just finding that I've burdened myself with too many "shoulds" during the Holidays and can get stressed out by all the busy-ness. And it shouldn't be a stressful time at all. Anyone feeling the same way?

I'll let you know how it goes! It might be kind of hard because there are so many expectations and my family loves traditions. I'll keep the important ones going for sure and we'll see if the family rebels at letting go of others.

I'd love to hear how YOU handle the busy-ness of the Holidays! They're coming SOON!

AND TO ALL THE GHOSTS AND GOBLINS OUT THERE...WISHING YOU A FUN AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!