I always say I am not going to be crazy at Christmas – but it always happens anyway. I have taken a few shortcuts to help but there are plenty of things I probably still could do to re-prioritize and focus on Jesus this Christmas.

Here are few things that have helped

• I haven’t made candy – I usually dip pretzels and make all kinds of other candy but it takes a lot of time and it’s not good for us to eat it anyway.
• I am not trying to be super woman in the kitchen and cook for every event. Example – we are having our small group Christmas Party tonight and we are ordering out.
• We haven’t stressed about school this week – we did a few math lessons and some reading and that’s been about it – we are officially on Christmas Break until January!
• Emma didn’t do ballet this year so we didn’t have the Nutcraker production. I missed seeing her on stage and the cute costumes but she and I really enjoyed just going to see it together without the stress.
• I made time to go to my friend Stephanie’s Christmas Dinner – this wasn’t stress free for her because she made a wonderful dinner and her house was beautiful – but it was a nice night to dress up a little and hang out with some other girls. We had fun.

My mom is taking the kids this afternoon to her house to make cookies so I guess I have few hours to tie up the loose ends. I would love to say I had it all done and I could go get a manicure or soak in the whirlpool tub – but that’s not happening! Maybe next year….