Planning for Peace ….

While our jack –o-lantern was starting to decompose outside, Pete and I sat down this weekend to have our holiday season chat. I know your kids are probably still clinging to the ceiling from too much candy, and the thought of Christmas is a bit nauseating, bit stick with me here. A few years ago I realized that if I didn't start planning for the holiday season early, and I do mean early, then the whole month of December looked like a hectic grumpy mess and afterwards I felt like I had missed it. So Pete and I sat down this weekend to look at the last two months of the year and plan out what has got to get done and also what we want to do for fun. First we put on our calendars our obligations – holiday meals, birthdays, and family visits. Then we made a list of the holiday related work that needs to get done; decorating, shopping, cards, and some major cleaning before his mother and grandmother join us for Thanksgiving. Looking at our to do list we figured out how much time each of us will need and then plugged into the calendar two work days when I will hire a sitter or set up play dates so we can get it all done. There were some house projects that we would like to get done, but they are not absolutely necessary, so they came off the list for this year. Last, but definitely not least, we made a list of the fun things we want to do with the girls this holiday season. We looked up the dates for our local Christmas parade, the zoo's holiday light event, and local museums family holiday days. Looking at how full our calendar already was, we realized we needed to pick just two events. We chose the zoo and the parade and we blocked off those evenings on the calendar.

Does this seem ridiculously type A? Believe me, I am not naturally type A! There is a bigger picture here. I want our holiday season to have meaning. I want Pete and I to be thoughtful about what we do with our children during this time of year, because it is just so easy to make December an exhausting whirlwind. I want us to be on the same page, so that our priorities are the same, not one of us thinking we'll be finishing our basement this month and the other one assuming we'll be going to all of the wonderful holiday season festivals around town. This is our first step in planning for a peaceful holiday season.