Three more days to finish my November writing goals! Three more days before we start our Advent activities! Three more days before I finally get to start listening to Christmas music!
Only three days left in November ... how did that happen?
Growing up, my family never had Christmas traditions centered around any special days - we sometimes had an Advent calendar, but not always. Some years we got our tree early in the month, some years not until Christmas Eve. We did have traditions around Christmas Eve - Lis and me shopping with Dad, going to Grandma and Grandpa's church for the special service, opening one gift each before going to bed, and listening to the rustling of tissue paper downstairs as Mom wrapped all our stocking gifts.
When Carl and I got married, we decided we wanted to implement a few more (flexible) traditions, such as always decorating on the first weekend in December. We aren't always able to pull it off (such as when we move right before Thanksgiving and don't even know where all our Christmas decorations are!), but we get our tree and start the decorating as close to that weekend as possible. This year, I'm starting Advent activities with the girls - we're getting little envelopes that I can put notes in with each day's activity - and some days, instead of an activity, there will be little candies in the envelope. If the girls enjoy it as much as I think I am going to, we'll probably try to make this another tradition.
First, though, I am going to push myself hard to get those last 5,000 words done on my 1920s ms before December 1st. I would be so pleased if I could accomplish at least one of my November goals!
Do you have special holiday traditions? Did they pass down from your families, or are they ones that you started after forming your own family? Did you accomplish (if you had any) your November writing goals?
Christmas time. Time for people to start going crazy! I try not to do too much for Christmas, because I work retail and I watch people stress out over what is supposed to be fun.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a great season. It always the best when the little ones are around the house.
Oh, fffbt. Advent started YESTERDAY. Why put it off any longer?
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your writing! You can do it! Merry Christmas season!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of the advent envelopes. Good luck hitting your writing goal!
ReplyDeleteOlene - oh, the stress related to Christmas is INSANE. Some years my mother used to beg us not to do a tree or presents, just because she hated all the expectations and pressures that came along with Christmas. We've always tried to keep things as simple as possible while still enjoying the season!
ReplyDeleteRockinlibrarian - AHHH I can't imagine trying to think up enough activities for extra days! Besides, I have yet to make it to the store to BUY the envelopes, which would make it tricky. I told Carl we HAVE to get there before Thursday, or I'm in big trouble.
JA - thanks! I made some progress yesterday, and got a little over 200 words written this morning before the littles got up. Every little bit helps, right?
Kirsten - I looked at a bunch of different ideas for the advent calendar, and decided that the envelopes made the most sense, given the age of my littles and my lack of dedication toward crafting anything elaborate. I'm excited, though!
Ooh, have fun with your kids! ^_^
ReplyDeleteWe have some traditions passed on from families (like we had waffles for breakfast on Christmas when I was younger, and we do that every year, and my mom always put a bag of chocolate coins in our stockings, and we do that with the kids), and then other things that we've done ourselves, like the kids picking out a new ornament for the tree every year.
Good luck with the novel!! You can do it!
Didn't hit the November goal, but loved trying. Ran the NaNo race and made it to just 19 of the wished-for 50K. But that's not bad for an out-of-shape writer! :)
ReplyDeleteLove the advent activities idea! And like Laura, we pick out a new ornament every year. I like to celebrate three times in December--once on St. Nick, one on Solstice, and once on Christmas Day. That spreads gifts out for my little so she's not faced with a mountain of commercialism, like I was as a kid. :) That mountain was always both overwhelming and disappointing, in my opinion.