Every blog everywhere is talking about New Year’s resolutions and goal setting right now. So, since I’m trying to be a legitimate blogger I figured I better jump on the bandwagon and inspire all of you to better yourselves in the new year. The problem is I’ve never been very good at setting helpful, realistic goals for myself. There are all kinds of rules and guidelines for how to make a good goal, but following such guidelines always sounded so stifling and boring. So I’m going to take a different approach: good old fashioned stream-of-consciousness list making. Here are my goals for 2014:
Today I’m linking up at Nesting Place for her annual Christmas Tour of Homes. Check it out if you want to see about a million other home tours.
I think God put Christmas in December because he knew we would need a reason to add warmth and cheer to our homes during the long, dark winter nights. (Ok, so he had some more significant purposes in mind when he sent his son to earth as a baby. But that’s one of the great things about God. He shows his love in the great big unfathomable ways, but also in the tiny daily details of life. Like giving us the opportunity to enjoy Christmas lights and garland.) If only it were socially acceptable to leave Christmas decor up through February.
I’m sitting in the living room, watching Charlie as he moves haphazardly between toys, picking one up, putting it down, getting something new out of the toy drawer, banging a couple together…you know, normal baby play behavior, when he goes over to the shelf, reaches his hands up and says “blah.”
That’s his word for everything in the world. It generally means he wants something.
I look up to see what he’s pointing at and say, “Do you want your treasure basket?”
He grins, and stomps his feet around a few times (that’s his happy dance) and toddles over to a clear spot on the rug. He’s ready for some serious playtime.
For about a year I’ve been planning to make an Activity Advent Calendar for Christmas. Despite the plan, I still didn’t get it done until 2 days after Advent had commenced, but no one but me really seemed to mind. So just in case you’re looking for some some late-start advent ideas, I thought I’d go ahead and share what I did. (Or maybe you’ll be cooler than me and tuck this idea away for next year and actually get it done on time!) Anyway, back to the calendar. I love the idea of being intentional about celebrating the season and creating family memories. I also knew that Charlie would be just old enough to enjoy some special activities each day. We are just beginning to form our family Christmas traditions, and I feel like this advent calendar is something that will grow with us through the years.