Holidays in Hand

I signed up for a class (Holidays in Hand) at JessicaSprague.com. I'm excited because I haven't had a lot of time to scrapbook. But I miss it, and I am hoping that setting aside time will allow me to get some scrapping time in. The first assignment is to write down your values and goals. So let's get started.

My goals:

To spend time together as a family, focusing on being together. We were doing weekly Christmas movie nights, but we didn't last year. Maybe we will do that again this year. We used to drive around and look at Christmas lights, but again, that has fallen by the wayside. We should do that again. Maybe have an impromptu photo taking session. Maybe just make cookies.

We have already implemented (several years ago) a standard of one Christmas gift per person--that is, each person gives one gift for each person in the family. No more than one. And, to be honest, that is really hard. At least for me. I see stuff that I want to get my kids, but in the back of my mind I keep remembering that one gift. And because it is only one--I want it to be the best possible gift for that person. I already have my daughter's gift this year figured out. It is so awesome! I wish I could share it with you, but there is always a chance that she will read this, so it will have to wait until after Christmas. My goal is to find the right gifts for the rest of my family.

To spend time with friends. I would like to host a December dinner club. We are having a cookie swap--but that's girlfriends only. We need to get families together. I need to work on that. Everyone is so busy during the holidays, but it is always so much fun to spend time together. Maybe we can just do a cocktail/appetizer hour.

Another goal is to have a memorable, fun Christmas without spending a lot of money. Because, let's face it, money is extremely tight here.

My values:

This is kind of hard. I value time spent together. But what else? I want to teach my kids how important time spent with each other is (actually I think I have taugth them that--but I want to reinforce that).