How I'm Preparing for Advent

So after a couple days of my husband being sick, I had a chance to take out my notes from last Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas Eve, & Christmas Day. Making these notes was an idea I stole from my mom, and I highly recommend it! It's fun to see what we did last year and how I wanted to change things in the upcoming years. I forgot how hectic the holidays were, celebrating with both sides of the family on each holiday!! 

After looking at the notes, I had some time to brainstorm a little and see how I can make everything smoother for us and more prayerful, as noted in my last post. Here are some things I came up with for our family this year...

1. Make all the lists before Thanksgiving

        I'm hoping this doesn't contradict my last post on slowing down with the Autumn season...But at some point, we have to begin preparations, and I feel like it's best done around the time we start getting together to talk about Thanksgiving. While I'm thinking about what side I'm bringing and what time we should come over, I've also started making my master holiday planning list! Thank you, Dad, for your love of organization and lists! On this master list, I have a to-do list for the following: Thanksgiving, To Do Before Nov. 30th (which is the day we begin the St. Andrew novena), Advent Weeks 1-4, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, The Octave, Christmas season bucket list, my Baking List, and a couple shopping lists for Christmas gifts and groceries. 

The goal is to fill it all out on Word, little by little, then print it and check it off throughout the season. Don't you love a good list? I know I do! I think this will help me to keep track of everything. All in one place! I tend to have more than one list, and a calendar, so typically things get lost, and I forget that I need to bake four dozen cookies for the cookie swap, and I have to go back to Walmart (All roads lead back to Walmart, we always say) even though I thought the grocery shopping was done yesterday. 

We'll see how it goes, but the goal, put simply, is everything on ONE list for simplified planning. 

2. Add Prayer, Subtract Fancy Dinners

        I did this thing in Lent, where I cooked simple meals. It was great! Grilled cheese and tomato soup on a Friday (or hey why not on any day?) means a couple things: First, the cost of the meal is low, so I will have more money to spend on my husband's stocking stuffers. Second, a simple meal reminds us that we are in a penitential season (not exactly like Lent but still a purple season.) Third, it takes less ingredients, so I don't have to spend as much time meal planning, shopping, and actually making the meal. This gives me more time. The goal is to spend more of it in prayer. I'm going to try to go to daily mass once a week and hopefully I'll find a good Advent meditation. 

I have this habit of thinking that every meal has to be feast! Table set beautifully, salad and bread to go with the main course, and a seasonal dessert if I can. That's the ideal, and of course it doesn't always happen that way, but the pride inside me gets worried when I serve my husband a simple meal. 

Will he like it? Is it enough? Guess what- It always is. He's so grateful and loves pretty much anything I serve him. So, this Advent I'm going to pull out my "simple meals" list and start planning from there. 

3. Finish Shopping In The First Week of Advent

        Notice how I'm saying "the goal" a lot. That is because these are the goals. I'm feeling confident now but if I can't complete everything exactly how I want to, that is ok. After all, this is supposed to be less stressful.

I really want to finish all my Christmas shopping (just gifts & wrapping paper) in the first week of Advent. I feel like that is the most stressful thing on my list, and if I can get it out of the way in the first week, I'll be happy. Nothing is worse than going shopping two days before Christmas because you can't think of what to get for your little brother, only to end up with a gift card and a feeling of defeat. Hopefully that won't be me this year. 

4. No Stressing About Christmas Cards

        It actually was pretty easy last year for our Christmas card because we just used our wedding picture. And, having just made up an entire guest list for the weddings...Well, we knew the Christmas card list was going to be much simpler. This year, my goal is to do even less stressing and do some good old-fashioned hand delivering in the Octave. Looking back at my Christmas notes, I mentioned that I wanted to deliver cookies to friends and family during the octave with a plate of cookies, like my mom used to do for our neighbors. I have fond memories of my sister and I bringing out the old wagon for delivering the treats to our neighbors (with Santa hats of course). I thought it would be fun to do this during the Octave, attaching a note saying something like "Just a sweet little reminder that it's still the Christmas season!" 

Not only is it fun, and it feels like going back in time to the days of "calling on" neighbors and friends, but it's a good way to witness to non-Catholic friends, who might be wondering why we didn't put up our decorations until Christmas Eve, then keep them up until Epiphany (or even Candlemas day if we're feeling crazy). All that being said, the point is that I'm not going to worry if I don't have all my cards mailed before the 25th. 

5. Taking Time To Bake

        Another thing my mom does, is when she is baking her Italian Pizzelle cookies, she always says three Hail Mary's for the people she is making them for. I always thought that was a beautiful tradition. It makes one step back and remember why we're running around baking all these things and going to all these parties; for the family, community and the love we have for them. It also helps give more time to prayer, as mentioned in number 2, above. I'm going to try to take a whole week for all the baking.

Obviously there's other things to do, you know like homemaking and all the usual duties, but if I can take the afternoons for a whole week and dedicate them to baking, I won't feel like I need to wipe down the kitchen mixer or put away the cooling racks until the end of the week. I might also experiment with making cookie dough ahead and freezing it until the day I need the cookies. I feel like that would minimize the mess and stress too. 

Well, that's all the things I came up with for us to have a more peaceful Advent and Christmas season. It looks like a lot, but honestly looking at my freshly printed Master Holiday List, it's very clear what needs to happen and when it needs to happen by. I'm so excited for the upcoming Advent season and for growing in holiness during it!

God bless,

Gina 💕