Intentional December

It happens to me every year.

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays zoom by and the new year comes and I'm like, "whoa. Totally missed the holiday season. "

I feel like I coast through November and December in a rush of grocery shopping, Christmas present shopping, wrapping, etc. without just enjoying the days.

I decided I would do December different this year.

I'd be intentional with it.

So I wrote out all the days in the month of December and I've planned specific activities to do with Josh and the girls so that when the month is over I'll know we lived it.  Enjoyed it.

Activities include:

Read Tabitha's Travels every night before bed.
Make an Advent wreath. (i bought terracotta pots, some moss, some candles, and let the girls paint the pots. then i put in the candles and filled the pots with beans to hold said candles in place. then covered the beans with moss. thank you, Pinterest.)
Decorating the house. (we did this Sunday)
Hanging Christmas lights. (was supposed to be done on Tuesday, but holy cold front, Batman.)
Christmas movie nights each Friday of the month. (i bought Elf, Charlie Brown Christmas, and Miracle on 34th St.)
Lighted Implement Parade. (tomorrow. it's supposed to be like 7 degrees. i'm gonna freeze off the nips!)
Christmas cookies.
Visit Josh's grandma in the nursing home. (i'm terrible at this but need to get back to making it a weekly thing.)
Christmas baking.
Go to Miner's for dinner and then drive around looking at Christmas lights.
Christmas shopping date with Josh. (he's taken a vacation day for next Friday and my mom has offered to watch the girls. we're going to get all our shopping done in one go and do lunch and a movie.)
Christmas Eve. (we always let the girls open one gift. it's always jammies. so they can have pretty, matching jammies for Christmas morning pictures.)

Now, all of these things may have happened whether I wrote them down or not.  But I'm guessing not.

Also, the last couple of days I've felt that it would probably be best if I gave up Facebook and Twitter for the rest of the month.  I love those places.  I do.  But they can be a distraction and with as busy as this month is, I just don't need the distraction.

I'll still be on Instagram (are we friends there? sarah_lee63 is my username) and of course Pinterest because how can you do Christmas without Pinterest?! ;)

I'll also blog.  Probably about as much as I'm doing now.  (uh, which hasn't been much...)

Do you have any Christmas traditions?  I wanna know.