Christmas Countdown: 30 Weeks From Today

Christmas Countdown: 31 Weeks From Today

Let the Shopping Begin!

Today marks the official start of Christmas Shopping Season at my house. Although I have purchased a few gifts here and there, today I made a good sized dent in Christmas shopping.

It all happened by accident. I walked into Kohl's and saw some items on clearance that I thought would make good gifts for some of the girls in my family. On clearance. 80% off. Plus I have a 30% off coupon. Oh yeah. I had to buy them.

So now I've got them home and I'm wrapping them and marking them down on my Christmas list.

I feel pretty good right about now!

Christmas Countdown: 32 Weeks From Today

Christmas Countdown: 33 Weeks From Today

Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments 2016

Yep, it's here! The 2016 Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Dream Book. I received mine in the mail at the beginning of April and you can now pick up a copy at your local Hallmark store.

I have poured over the book with everyone in the family and my pre-order is about ready to be submitted.

Some years there are lots of ornaments I want and some years there are few that I want. Last year was a "few" year. This year is a "lots" year!

Here are a few of the ornaments I plan to purchase for myself:

 

And there are many more... Plus the ornaments I'm purchasing for my family that I can't share.

At my house: "Christmas time's a'comin"!

It's Time to Declutter

Several years ago I started displaying multiple trees at Christmas. It was something I had always wanted to do and I enjoyed it thoroughly. For the years that I kept up this tradition, I used various themes, moved the trees to new rooms from year to year, and amassed a huge collection of Christmas decor.

Then came Christmas 2015. I should have known things would be different when I wrenched my back while getting the decorations out of the garage right before Thanksgiving. Ouch. I am still suffering from that injury which over the past months has turned into a case of sciatica that I just can't get rid of. Bummer.

As I limped (literally) through the Christmas season I realized that I wasn't experiencing the same joy in decorating that I had the previous five years. I attributed it to my bad back and made adjustments.

The tree in Dan's office, usually the first one up, stayed in storage.

We purchased a 9 ft tree for the family room which is something we'd been wanting to do, but I ran out of steam and motivation and imagination to decorate it, so we pushed it in a corner and only decorated two sides of it.

The tree train stayed in the box.

You get the picture.

As I was painfully packing it all up I faced the reality that I needed to make a change for Christmas 2016.

First of all, I needed to store everything in many more, much smaller tubs. I do not want a repeat of the back issue.

I also need to go through my ornaments and make choices as to which ones I love and which ones I used to love but can break up with now.

I need to decide which rooms I want to have trees in and find a perfect spot for the 9 ft so that I can decorate every side of it.

I'm good with these changes. Now I just need to figure out how to implement them. The perfectionist in me wants to drag each tree out one at a time, decorate it, and then store it all back together. That's a ridiculous idea. Especially when it's 120 degrees in June.

A good alternative may be for me to get down all of my ornament tubs and go through them, pulling out the ornies I can part with. Then I can have my kids go through them and take what they want before carting the rest off to Goodwill.

I think I can handle that over the summer.

Stay tuned... you never know with me. Often I'm inspired, but before I can complete my inspiration I get tired or lose interest.

Have you recently made a major change in the way you decorate for Christmas? Please share your advice!

Christmas Countdown: 34 Weeks From Today