Faith in Parenting

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to remind her - next December (2008) - not to throw her daughter’s birthday party and their family birthday party on the same day. Since I was near the computer at the time we were talking, I quickly went in to my Outlook calendar and made a note of it. Now I’ll receive a reminder at the beginning of December, and when I do, I’ll remind her!

So that got me thinking… What do I want to do differently next year?

It’s kind of like debriefing after Vacation Bible School. When it ends, you have a ton of ideas for how things should be done the next year, but if you don’t write them down, your wisdom is easily forgotten by the time the planning committee meets in the spring to prepare for the next year’s VBS.

So what about you? What do you want to do differently next year when it comes to your family’s holiday celebrations? What do you want to do the same?

Here’s My List of Personal Do’s and Don’ts:

• Do not purchase Christmas cards that require envelopes! I’m already planning to buy Christmas postcards next year. That alone should save me several hours of work. (Perhaps I should explain… My husband is a pastor, and I feel very strongly that each member of his congregation should receive a Christmas card from him; this year we bought 500 cards, and we have a handful left over!)
• Do not try a new recipe on Christmas morning! (Folks, the make-ahead blueberry French toast didn’t turn out so well!)
• Do stick with the “3 gifts per family member” plan. This year, the kids asked “Santa” for the “gold” item (something they really wanted), and we purchased “frankincense” and “myrrh” gifts for them (something to wear and something to read).
• Do go Christmas caroling again on Christmas Eve. We went to a local nursing home with another family from our small group, and it was a blast! I can’t even begin to express how thankful these people were to have our children show up at their doorway, singing.

How about you? What would you do the same, and what would you do differently? As simple as it seems, it’s actually important for us to have these conversations with ourselves now, so that we can be sure to implement our best intentions next year.

If it’s helpful to you, write yourself a note and tape it to your December 2008 calendar page, or even pack it away with your Christmas ornaments this year, so that you’ll be sure to read it again when you take out those same boxes eleven months from now.

In addition, share your thoughts in the comments section below.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 3:54 pm and is filed under traditions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.