Hello Friend!!!!
Thanks for being here today!
 If you want your life and holiday to be simpler, you have to learn how to do that so that when unexpected things happen in your schedule, it doesn’t throw you off!  
I just want to share a few tips of how we keep our Christmas simple.  We had an experience many years ago, that made us really make changes in how we did Christmas.  We love going to church on Christmas Eve since this whole season is about celebrating the birth of Jesus and we want our kids to know that Jesus is the Reason for this season.  
It always felt like we had to rush here and rush there and we weren’t really enjoying it because it was so chaotic. We now can really enjoy Christmas with the focus being on Christ and having one less place to travel simplified the whole holiday.  We still see those family members for Christmas, we just do it on a different day, so it works out perfect!  
We also simplified our schedules to keeping our time sacred and trying not to overplan activities.  We used to host all kinds of gatherings from cookie exchanges to ugly sweater parties and we have reduced our activities so we can just enjoy the calm of the season because  planning for all the activities along with everything else there is to do in about 4 weeks can be very exhausting and overwhelming.
We have also simplified gift giving.  We really only buy for Grandkids, make gifts for friends and then our gift to the family is renting a place for all the kids and grandkids every year usually in February or March, so that is another great way to make even more memories when there is less to do when the temperatures are so cold here!  People and Kids will forget the gifts you give them, but they will remember the memories made! 
Another area we simplified on Christmas was to have soups or chillis ready in crockpots and dips and snack foods mostly prepared ahead of time when all the kids and grandkids are here, so nobody was having to spend the whole time in the kitchen. Having foods ready makes the whole experience relaxed and fun so you can spend treasured time together!!!!  We play games and laugh alot!  Kids have a blast with all their cousins and it just makes for a fantastic time!
 
I hope you have taken a few of these tips that you can implement into your busy season to enjoy slow living and being intentional with your time.  Send me an email and let me know what your plan is this year!  I would love to hear it!
 
Website:
Claimingsimplicity.com
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Talk soon Friend!
Monica