Are We Stressed Yet?

Christmas is only six days away.

In case you didn't know that.

How're you doing on that to-do list? Baking done yet? Decorations up? Shopping finished? Presents wrapped? Cards sent?

Are we having fun yet?

Studies show that Christmas is one of the most stressful holidays of the year, but you probably already knew that, right? There are so many extra activities/responsibilities during this season that it's easy to get overwhelmed. There's school parties and church parties and neighborhood parties and family parties and programs and events and ... well, you get the idea.

Since you're reading the blog right now, you're probably procrastinating from all the Christmas work that you should be doing, so let me help ease a little of your burden. Here's a few simple ways to lighten some of the stress from the holidays.

1. Don't focus on what you can't do. Focus on what you can. Maybe you didn't personalize all your cards this year. Don't beat yourself up. Be glad you actually got them in the mail before the 24th.

2. Don't put added stress on yourself. For instance, if you're not a gourmet cook at other times of the year, don't plan on a culinary masterpiece to wow everyone at the dessert fellowship. Go ahead and make that boxed brownie mix. It's chocolate--who doesn't love that? Make it special by adding frosting and sprinkles. Hey, look, you just made a Christmas dessert!

3. If you're putting up your decorations a little at a time, then make today the day that you say "I'm finished decorating". Who cares if you only have half your tree decorated? Maybe you're starting a new trend.

4. Is it not Christmas until you've watched your favorite Christmas movie? Don't wait until you have a free evening because you know that's not happening until after New Year's. Find your movie on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon video, Vudu, Sling or some other streaming service. Now watch the movie on your phone while you do the dishes.

5. Haven't finished all your shopping? Stop looking for bargains and start shopping on Amazon. Get a prime membership if you don't already have one, and get all your packages delivered by Friday. Then check present shopping off the list. And don't beat yourself up looking for the perfect gift. You're past that point now. Instead you need to start truly believing that it's the thought that counts. And if all else fails, give chocolate.

6. Kiss your plans for the perfect Christmas goodbye. It was never going to happen anyway and with less than a week to go, you've got no time for fantasy. Realize that an adequate Christmas is really okay. If you're still striving for the perfect Christmas, you will fail. Adequate beats failure every time.

7. Stressing over gift wrapping? Buy gift bags and tissue paper. No hunting for scissors, no need to buy tape. And you an reuse the bags. Look at you being all thrifty!

8. Getting way behind on your list? Go put a load of laundry in the washer. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but after falling behind all day long, you'll still be able to feel like you've accomplished something. And as an added bonus, you'll have clean towels for tomorrow morning's shower. Your welcome.

9. Do not, under any circumstances, try to eat healthy or stick to a diet right now. No one needs that kind of stress. Instead, limit yourself to one dessert a day and then congratulate yourself on your self-control. Bonus tip:  Two cookies counts as one serving and if you split them up during the day, you'll feel like you've had two desserts with only half the guilt.

10. Set your sights a little lower. Don't worry about living in the moment. With less than a week to go, you don't have time for that. Instead, your goal should be to survive the moment.

So how're you handling the stress?

Merry Makeshifter

We are officially in the middle of the Christmas season, which means Christmas Parties! There is no such thing as a party if you don't have decorating, right? Well that is one of my jobs at the church and when it comes to decorating I like to think ahead and pick decor that can be used for more than one event. Take this past weekend for example. We had our Sunday School class party Friday night, and our Cantata was Sunday evening followed by a dessert fellowship, both called for some decorating. 

My go to place for ideas for everything is Pinterest! I means whose isn't?

I was scrolling through different ideas of what I can do with things we already had between myself and the church. Also, something that was simple and elegant because my husband and I were also planning and prepping the party Friday night.

So I came across this:

Simple enough, all I had to buy was some Christmas Ribbon and Pine Cones! 

I did my shopping and I was all set. I had everything I needed to decorate and was ready to get started. I even got cinnamon pine cones, jackpot! Not only was it going to look pretty but it would smell pretty too! I must have been too confident with my plan because my first idea was a fail. My pine cones we're too large and my vases weren't as big as I remembered them being. Only two pine cones fit in each vase. 

So, I had to come up with something else. Ideas were spinning through my mind.  

Back story: We had just put a box with a Christmas tree in the next room that we attempted to put up. To make a long story short, it was a piece by piece tree, we were in a time crunch and couldn't figure out how to put the stand together. Needless to say we decided to not put up the tree and just do the table decorations. 

A new idea struck. I went to the next room and got two of the branches out of the box, fluffed them out and put them together. Then laid them on the table and it looked really good, until I added the vase with only two pine cones.

That plan was also a fail. I did away with the vase completely. 

Now what?

Finally, I decided on rustic simplicity.

I kept the tree branches and stuck the pine cones on top! It was simple, elegant, it smelled amazing, and it was easy to clean up! It wasn't my original idea but sometimes you have to makeshift what you have and keep on going, eventually it will all fall into place!

Your turn. Are you a decorator?

Do you quit working when your ideas do or do you keep on going?

Portuguese Word Vomit

One of the hardest things about this transition is that we cannot talk to anyone. One of the first phrases we learned was "I don't speak Portuguese".   Now we are working on fixing that problem. We recently started language school. YAY!... well, sort of.. I have homework again. 

 Anyways, having started classes, hubby and I have decided that when we go out, we make it a point to use what we've learned. We went out a few days ago to get some Christmas shopping done, and then we went to dinner at a place we have been a few times. It's a buffet type place which makes it easier. No menu to read or ordering to do.  As we walked into the restaurant, we were giving each other phrases to use.

We were greeted by a waiter who had seen us before, but he had not been our waiter before. He asked us a few typical questions like, "what do you want to drink" and "do you want ice and lemon". We learned how to answer those questions shortly after arriving in Brazil, so no big deal. Hubby used his phrases in the first five minutes of being there, but I hadn't.

The waiter came back and started really trying to chat with us, so we finally said  "We only speak a little Portuguese". He laughed and then tried to talk to us some more. He asked if we were Americans and how long we had been in Brazil. We picked the few words we knew out of his phrases and pieced together what he was saying.

Oh, ok he said "America".. yes, we're Americans. he said "time" and "Brazil" .. ok, we've been here 4 months. Then he asked why we were in this city. We tried to tell him that we were going to language school. He kept saying "Oh, Professors?" ... uh, no... we're not professors...  "School. Professors?" .. no, no, no.... Students... He kept laughing, so I'm not sure what we said, unless he was just laughing at the thought of us being language professors... that thought makes me laugh too.

Towards the end of our meal, he came back. He had seen us there before with another missionary. So, he asked us, "The tall man. Is he your dad? or your dad?" Oh, we laughed. That was the second time someone had asked if he was our dad. Hubby said he was our friend, not our dad.

That's when it happened. I thought "He's not going to be happy that you thought he was our dad" ... then i thought "I know those words. Say them, it'll make the guy laugh." So, I opened my mouth and said the words in Portuguese "He no happy..." That was all I had. I suddenly realized I did not know all the words needed to say that phrase... but my mouth, for some reason, did not get the memo that was going through my brain. My mouth kept spewing Portuguese words. "He no happy like you dad no happy"..... I felt like I was watching myself, and my brain was screaming "SSSTTOOOOPPPP TALKING!!!!!" 

When I finally stopped saying words, the man just stared... then said "OI???" (HUH??) My hubby was trying really hard not to laugh, and his face was saying the same thing, "WHAT??".   OK, Google Translate to save the day. I typed it out, showed him, he laughed. When he walked away, hubby looked at me and said "Wow. You really wanted to talk didn't you?"  Ya, well my mouth was more confident than my brain.

Pretty much sums it up.                                

My first big blunder, and I'm sure there will be so many more to come.

Taking One for theTeam

So how many parties are you/have you gone to so far this season? And at how many of these parties did you do a White Elephant Gift Exchange? I think it's a required game at all Independent Baptist Church Christmas parties.

In case you're unfamiliar with the game, everyone brings a gift to the party. Mostly new gifts, but sometimes used. The crazier the gift the better, usually. Everyone draws a number and when it's your turn, you can choose a gift from under the tree, or "steal" a gift from someone who went before you. Needless to say, the game can get quite boring if no one steals.

One year we had a party at our house and we did the gift exchange. NO ONE was stealing, so it was a very polite, boring game. As the hostess, I felt like it was my duty to stir things up and make them more interesting. So when my turn came, I stole a gift from someone else. I stole a Christmas cookie jar, filled with homemade Christmas cookies. It was the perfect move to inspire everyone. Except that, unfortunately, I was the only one to steal a present. Ah well. I felt like I was acting in everyone's best interest. It was a my duty as the hostess to liven things up.

Apparently my husband didn't see it that way.

Fast forward a year. We were preparing for a Christmas party at our house again. A White Elephant Gift Exchange was on the schedule again. The night of the party my husband reminded me in advance not to take the nicest gift at the party that night. Like it was my fault no one else would play the game like they were supposed to. Or like it's my fault I ended up with the best present of the night. My husband can't remember something I've told him two minutes after I said it, but for an entire year he remembered that I took the cookie jar. There's something so wrong about that.

In the interest of being the obedient wife, I agreed not to take the nicest present that year. But just before the party started, I took out my Christmas cookie jar and made sure it was shined up and displayed prominently in my kitchen. Sometimes the wordless gesture says it all.

Ho Ho Ho!

Mission Impossible

Your mission readers, should you choose to accept...

Help me figure out the secret of Christmas gift giving, or how to get gifts secretly.

You see, my mission is to surprise my husband with a really great gift.

I have two specific ideas, both of which I don't know much about. One is something electronic and the other is a gun that he has been wanting. Neither of which I feel like I should pick out on my own. One, because he knows so much about electronics, that if I picked it out he would most likely have to return it the next day. The next gift would be a new gun, and I feel like if I'm going shopping for a gun I should know more than just the name of the gun I'm looking for.

I have asked him to give me a list of ideas of what I can get him for Christmas because this year I'm a little lost on what to do. He gave me a very short list and most of the list consists of stuff he needs which isn't very fun. 

My husband isn't picky and he isn't a snob, but sometimes it seems impossible to shop for him.

So my mission is to find at least one thing that is totally unexpected and pretty cool. As, for the rest I'm not quite sure yet.

We have done Christmas's where we have picked out each other's gifts and we didn't know what we were getting until Christmas day. We have also done Christmas where we pick out our own gifts.

How do you and your spouse do Christmas? Are you surprised or do you pick out your own gifts?

A trip down memory lane

Yesterday I was looking through our old pictures. I don't know where the last three years went. They seem to be a blur in my mind. I remember all of these moments, but they just flew by.

First we had this crazy kid, who still always keeps us on our toes.

First VBS... Exhausting!

Then came baby #2

Baby Brother

First VBS... I see a pattern here... 

Shopping Shenanigans!

The Christmas cookies that probably should not have been eaten. There were a lot of baby hands in there... 

Christmas with cousins

I'm not really sure what happened here. 

First Fourth of July. He was wowed!

Can't resist those smiles. 

Then came baby #3. Baby Sister. 

That's all folks! The last three and a half years of my life in a nutshell. 

I feel like I just blinked and there it went. What did you miss the last time you blinked?

Making OCD Work for You

I really love it when my home is decorated for Christmas. There's something about the twinkling lights, the cozy fire in the fireplace, the Christmas music playing ...

My only problem is the stuff that comes before that. You know--the dragging the totes and boxes out of the basement and sorting through everything part.

The decorating part.

I don't really have a knack for decorating. I mean, sure I can look up how to do stuff and I can copy ideas that I've seen ... with minimal success.

I think decorating is too much like crafting. No matter what picture I have in my head, the end results look like a fifth grader did it.

No offense to fifth graders intended.

Because I dread doing the decorating, I was thrilled when Nick and Luke agreed to help. Of course
they had to get in the Christmas spirit first by watching Elf, a movie I absolutely hate. (Will Ferrell in yellow tights. Need I say more?), but hey, if it got them in enough of a Christmas spirit to help, then I'm all for it!

After the movie was over, the boys started sorting the branches for the Christmas tree. Someone gave us this tree, and this is the first year we've used it. I was busy setting out decorations elsewhere in the house, and I was pleasantly surprised when I came back to find the boys accurately and enthusiastically "fluffing" the branches. Luke, who tends to be OCD about things, was paying particular attention to detail. The next morning our tree was completely put together and I've never seen a fuller one. Or a taller one in our living room.

Sunday night I decided to try and put on the lights. I know lights should be woven in and out of the branches so the cords don't show, but I couldn't reach the top part of this tree even when standing on a chair. And the tree was so full, I couldn't get the cords tucked in well at all. When Luke came up and commented on my efforts, I told him he could do it himself if he wanted to. To my surprise, he did want to. He undid the little bit I'd managed to do and restrung it himself. As you can see, the height of the tree was not a problem for him.

You've got to be careful with that OCD stuff, though. Today I noticed that a swath of lights in the middle of the tree had stopped working. I told Luke I'd buy another set of lights if he'd fix it. My thought was to string the new lights through the middle of the tree and bypass the old strand that wasn't working. Instead, Luke undid all the lights, found where the problem was and fixed it, and then restrung them.

My way was easier. Just sayin'.

At any rate, now we have a beautiful lit tree that I need to finish decorating. I have ribbon to weave through and ornaments to put on ... or maybe I'll just wait until Luke comes home from work tomorrow. I'm sure he'd help. Right after he finishes his plan for outlining the dormer windows in red lights and the garage in blue ones.

So who does the decorating at your house? And how OCD are you?