It Has Arrived

The little ghosts, goblins, princesses and superheros are coming down from their sugar highs and the holiday season is officially upon us! It starts earlier and earlier each year, doesn't it? Our stores are already filled with Christmas items and my living room still looks like a scary Halloween disaster. OK, maybe my living room is always a little frightening but, what can I say, we actually live in ours.

My kids spent no less than 2 hours sorting out candy. We are trying a new approach this year. Instead of mixing, matching and trading then hoarding candy in secret stashes around the house, everyone put their bags together and it's a free for all. The kids carefully sorted chocolates, hard candy, suckers and chewy things into separate containers that are being kept out in the dining room for everyone to share. They finally realized that they still had last years sweets hidden away and needed to throw them out. The new theory is, eat it until you can't stand the thought of it anymore and hopefully visitors will help dispose of it more quickly this way. I'll keep you posted on the results. So far, though, no candy fights, no sick kids and everyone seems content (of course, I am probably eating more than my share of chocolate, but, hey, I am woman!). Oh yeah, my 4 year old son also announced that we should bring the bucket of extra candy to kids who don't have any. You see, even candy presents a learning opportunity.

So what's next? Parent/teacher conferences, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, New Years - and for us, 3 December birthdays as well. This is definitely an extra crazy time for our household. What can we do to keep some sanity around here and keep our kids from becoming greedy, over scheduled, over sugared little tyrants?

I'll offer a few tips but we would love to hear suggestions from all of you as well!

There seems to be more pressure every year to do things during the holidays so the first thing we are going to do is... do less. We are staying home for Thanksgiving with a few close family members this year. We love large gatherings and usually host them but our lives need some down time now. With a teenager, a preteen and a preschooler, we run in at least 3 different directions every day so we are all looking forward to sleeping in and sticking around! Feeling guilty about not spending the holiday with everyone? No! Feeling blessed to be able to spend it enjoying my own kids - without the hassle of entertaining anyone else or hustling my kids around to clean up and get ready for company.

Next, we will follow the 4 year old's lead. We will make a visit to an organization with a donation of some sort. The kids always pull out books, toys and clothes to share with others and we talk about the different places we can bring them. One of our favorites is a home for abused children - it gets little publicity and does so much to help!

Finally, we will do our best to appreciate each other as a family. Busy lives often mean less time to spend together, so that will be our focus for the hectic season this year. What's yours?