what works for me during the holidays

This is my first post for Wednesday what works for me & lucky me the theme is  holdiays!!

Christmas is my FAVORITE time of the year!! I love just about everything about the season, from celebrating the Christ child's birthday, to spending the holidays with family, the baking, cookie swaps, big family dinners, desserts, and the smells of all things christmas. :) (I'm a scent kind of girl) I even enjoy my birthday being  just 5 days after Christmas.  I have found that being a blended family we do have a few more challenges to make the season memorable for the right reason and not for the stress of trying to do it all. With the mine, ours (and now after so many years,  we're blessed to have his too) we will be rearranging some of the Christmas outings. The busyness, and hustling from house to house, can definitely take away from the Christmas pleasures.  Here are just a few things that works for us.

1. Big families MUST plan, plan, and plan
We plan ahead as much as possible. Since I come from a large family (youngest grandchild of 23 and my oldest is the youngest great grand of 24!!) there are far too many parties to even try to attend them all!!

We usually rotate holidays, one year we try to spend thanksgiving with his family, and next with mine. Because I also alternate holidays with my ex, we do not always get to spend the actual holiday on the day with all of our kids since their winter break is divided- it's odd year through Christmas day at noon with me, even years with their dad.

Years ago we stopped traveling at ALL on Christmas Day!! We lounge around and take the day in. (the only travel is with the older three's dad)

2: Decorating in our own personal Style
Christmas decorations start the day after thanksgiving (unless I can convince Mr. Amazing to let me deck the house out earlier!!) We usually try to travel to Cashiers NC to the tree farms for our tree. There is no better smell than a fresh cut Frasier fir tree!! If it is a year where we can't travel, we will drag out the fake Christmas tree, and fluff it up a little. If this is the option, it is usually not decorated until very close to Christmas when all hopes of a real tree hunt is out.

There are multiple trees in our home. One boy's tree, one girl's tree, and this year Blondie will get her own tree in her room! The kids are allowed to decorate it any way they choose as long as it's not a fire hazard!! There have been years where they have put nothing but lights, or matchbox cars hanging from hooks, favorite dolls around the bottom, and pictures of friends, Barbie shoes, or even candy trees. It's fun to see how creative the kids can be with their tree.

I've found over the years that I was rearranging the ornaments on our family tree far more often than I wanted to. Of course like many others, the kids (all 5 mind you!!) would hang the ornaments in bunches on one branch. I could not help but to rearrange them. It became apparent the year our tree fell over, that allowing the ornaments to stay bunched up was not an option! So, I bought Christmas trees for each child's room and one for the upstairs hallway at home (at the time). We have 6 trees decorated during the holidays!!

3: All new Ornaments must have meaning
I love Christmas ornaments!! Some people have perfectly beautiful color coordinated trees. One day I hope to have a Mall tree for our formal living room (l which will be in that dream house I want) . For us, it’s a very personal Christmas tree.
Every year we try to add a special ornament to the tree that symbolizes something important in the lives of our family or in the children's lives. We have such a beautiful eclectic collection of ornaments. Some of my favorites are a small angel holding a birthday cake saying “happy birthday Jesus”, Santa with a Hawaiian shirt, (trip to Hawaii of course), Ballet girls (memorable for recitals). We collect ornaments through the year to symbolize trips, births of kids, pet additions, and even some in memory of those family members who are not with us anymore. (When Mr. Amazing was deployed, we decked a tree in complete red/white/blue and yellow ribbons.) This year we will probably add a squirrel to symbolize our move for Mr. Amazing's job as a "Secret Squirrel" and a two new glass stars to remember that this was the year we finally found the two missing links in Mr. Amazing's life. (His oldest 2 kids)
We have ornaments that the kids made when they were very young and some you have to look twice to even tell what they were meant to be. I love to visit my mom and see every year she still puts the little drum I made in elementary school. One day when our kids are adults they will have that same memory, of how important their creations were to us.

Since Christmas is my favorite time of the whole year, i could go on and on about it, but will save some for future posts!!
 looking for more ideas & tips for the holdidays?  please visit http://www.wearethatfamily.com/ to read more tips on what works for others