This week we are focusing on three sections of your planner – the Preparations section, the Recipe section, and the Stories and Poems section. Your planner will really begin to take shape as you download the pages for these sections, write on them, and add them to your planner.
The first section you’ll work in is Preparations.
These are your “work pages” each year. You’ll fill them out as the season goes on. We want you to remember the following sentence as you add these pages to your planner: “Control starts when you know what’s ahead and plan for it.”
All of these pages will help you in the Cut the Crazy process. I want to reemphasize that, part of the purpose of this class is to help you evaluate your holiday celebrations. Think about what you love, what is meaningful and what you want your Christmas to be. I am not telling you what is good or bad: that’s for you and your family to decide. The point is that you consider these suggestions in advance.
This week, you will think about what you love about your decorations, your traditions, and your recipes.
DECORATIONS:
When you open your boxes of Christmas decorations, there are probably certain items that make you smile and bring warm feelings to your heart. Maybe there are others that evoke negative emotions or bad memories. Maybe you have decorations that you don’t care for, that are out of style, or that are simply worn out.
You might want to simplify your decorating, go through your decorations and decide what you love and want to keep. Then decide what decorations you’re no longer interested in and give them away! Just think, if you give your unwanted decorations to charity today, someone will discover them and have ‘new’ decorations in time for their holiday celebration!
In this section of your planner, put any ideas you see in magazines (tear them out) or ideas online (simply print and place in this section of your planner). You could also make a decoration “wish list” here. It’s always really easy to wish and want material things, but I am on a budget. At Christmas time I especially have a difficult time because I love to decorate my home. I often find myself getting caught up in the moment and buying more decorations just because I think they are cute. I want to share with you a lesson I learned from my grandmother - her ‘wish list display.’ My grandma would rip pictures out of magazines of things she liked and wanted to buy, but maybe were not in her budget at the time. She would tape them up on her wall in her basement (we could put them in our binders of course), and if she still liked them a few weeks later, then she would work out her money accordingly. She found that by doing this she saved money because she did not impulse buy and would later realize that she really didn’t want some of the items. Since seeing my grandmother’s example, I realize how many times I buy things that I turn around and don’t really want later on.”
TRADITIONS:
Traditions are the activities that make you want to go home year after year…or make your family want to return home year after year. Traditions create a sense of security and continuity. And hopefully, they’re fun! Some people have too many traditions, some not enough. We encourage you to think about your traditions this week.
You can have ‘quick and simple’ traditions – things that are almost spur-of-the-moment. One family focuses on random acts of kindness such as leaving an extra big tip at a restaurant. You can have elaborate traditions, for example, giving gifts to a neighbor.
A fun exercise: Ask your family to list your Christmas traditions. It’s interesting what their perception is compared to yours. A friend of ours, who works on creating and keeping family traditions more than anyone we know, listened in shock as her teen-age daughter told a friend, “Well, I don’t think our family really has any traditions.” When she laughingly tells this story, she also shows the list their family made as a result of that comment of all their traditions.
Evaluate the joy you and your family find in your traditions and eliminate certain traditions if they’re not working for you. (But be sure everyone is in on the decision – maybe the holiday activity you want to get rid of is the tradition that brings the most meaning for your husband. This is tricky territory and you must communicate openly.)
Also, remember that you don’t have to do every tradition every year. You can go to the Nutcracker Ballet every three years – just put it on your Traditions List so you won’t forget it!
RECIPES AND MENUS:
The recipe section of the Christmas planner is everyone’s favorite. It’s such a great idea to keep all your holiday recipes and menus in one place! And since we’re scrappers, of course we want to tell the stories of our most special recipes. That’s what you’ll be doing in your project this week.
Christmas is NOT the time to try new recipes and menus (if you’re trying to cut the crazy!). If you really want to simplify, then you will use the same recipes and menus for any traditional dinners that you have. “Use the same menu for Christmas Day dinner every year? WOW!” Also, have the same people bring the same items year after year. If you know what you’re serving waayyy in advance, you can buy the ingredients early, make sure the serving dishes are clean, even cook the some of the food in November and freeze it. Write your menus in your planner on the Holiday Menus page. It will help you this year and in years to come!
If you do not feel that you can take control of the menu, tell your mother-in-law or sister or friend that you are taking a class about simplifying Christmas and you’d like to try out the idea of planning ahead this year. They may catch your enthusiasm and want to join you in simplifying the holiday menus.
STORIES AND POEMS:
The section called Stories and Poems is at the back of the planner. It’s a section that will expand year after year. Use this section to save any stories, poems, essays, or even quotes that are special to you at Christmas. These can be things you tear out of magazines or print off the internet. Don’t save the whole magazine for one story – just add it to your planner! You’ll have a great collection after a few years, and you’ll always know where to find them.
The first section you’ll work in is Preparations.
These are your “work pages” each year. You’ll fill them out as the season goes on. We want you to remember the following sentence as you add these pages to your planner: “Control starts when you know what’s ahead and plan for it.”
All of these pages will help you in the Cut the Crazy process. I want to reemphasize that, part of the purpose of this class is to help you evaluate your holiday celebrations. Think about what you love, what is meaningful and what you want your Christmas to be. I am not telling you what is good or bad: that’s for you and your family to decide. The point is that you consider these suggestions in advance.
This week, you will think about what you love about your decorations, your traditions, and your recipes.
DECORATIONS:
When you open your boxes of Christmas decorations, there are probably certain items that make you smile and bring warm feelings to your heart. Maybe there are others that evoke negative emotions or bad memories. Maybe you have decorations that you don’t care for, that are out of style, or that are simply worn out.
You might want to simplify your decorating, go through your decorations and decide what you love and want to keep. Then decide what decorations you’re no longer interested in and give them away! Just think, if you give your unwanted decorations to charity today, someone will discover them and have ‘new’ decorations in time for their holiday celebration!
In this section of your planner, put any ideas you see in magazines (tear them out) or ideas online (simply print and place in this section of your planner). You could also make a decoration “wish list” here. It’s always really easy to wish and want material things, but I am on a budget. At Christmas time I especially have a difficult time because I love to decorate my home. I often find myself getting caught up in the moment and buying more decorations just because I think they are cute. I want to share with you a lesson I learned from my grandmother - her ‘wish list display.’ My grandma would rip pictures out of magazines of things she liked and wanted to buy, but maybe were not in her budget at the time. She would tape them up on her wall in her basement (we could put them in our binders of course), and if she still liked them a few weeks later, then she would work out her money accordingly. She found that by doing this she saved money because she did not impulse buy and would later realize that she really didn’t want some of the items. Since seeing my grandmother’s example, I realize how many times I buy things that I turn around and don’t really want later on.”
TRADITIONS:
Traditions are the activities that make you want to go home year after year…or make your family want to return home year after year. Traditions create a sense of security and continuity. And hopefully, they’re fun! Some people have too many traditions, some not enough. We encourage you to think about your traditions this week.
You can have ‘quick and simple’ traditions – things that are almost spur-of-the-moment. One family focuses on random acts of kindness such as leaving an extra big tip at a restaurant. You can have elaborate traditions, for example, giving gifts to a neighbor.
A fun exercise: Ask your family to list your Christmas traditions. It’s interesting what their perception is compared to yours. A friend of ours, who works on creating and keeping family traditions more than anyone we know, listened in shock as her teen-age daughter told a friend, “Well, I don’t think our family really has any traditions.” When she laughingly tells this story, she also shows the list their family made as a result of that comment of all their traditions.
Evaluate the joy you and your family find in your traditions and eliminate certain traditions if they’re not working for you. (But be sure everyone is in on the decision – maybe the holiday activity you want to get rid of is the tradition that brings the most meaning for your husband. This is tricky territory and you must communicate openly.)
Also, remember that you don’t have to do every tradition every year. You can go to the Nutcracker Ballet every three years – just put it on your Traditions List so you won’t forget it!
RECIPES AND MENUS:
The recipe section of the Christmas planner is everyone’s favorite. It’s such a great idea to keep all your holiday recipes and menus in one place! And since we’re scrappers, of course we want to tell the stories of our most special recipes. That’s what you’ll be doing in your project this week.
Christmas is NOT the time to try new recipes and menus (if you’re trying to cut the crazy!). If you really want to simplify, then you will use the same recipes and menus for any traditional dinners that you have. “Use the same menu for Christmas Day dinner every year? WOW!” Also, have the same people bring the same items year after year. If you know what you’re serving waayyy in advance, you can buy the ingredients early, make sure the serving dishes are clean, even cook the some of the food in November and freeze it. Write your menus in your planner on the Holiday Menus page. It will help you this year and in years to come!
If you do not feel that you can take control of the menu, tell your mother-in-law or sister or friend that you are taking a class about simplifying Christmas and you’d like to try out the idea of planning ahead this year. They may catch your enthusiasm and want to join you in simplifying the holiday menus.
STORIES AND POEMS:
The section called Stories and Poems is at the back of the planner. It’s a section that will expand year after year. Use this section to save any stories, poems, essays, or even quotes that are special to you at Christmas. These can be things you tear out of magazines or print off the internet. Don’t save the whole magazine for one story – just add it to your planner! You’ll have a great collection after a few years, and you’ll always know where to find them.
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