Five Weeks

Five weeks from today there will be about 23 family members around our table for Christmas! Yes, we will be celebrating our Family Christmas on Friday, Dec. 23rd! We had not expected our whole family to be together for Christmas this year, as it did not look like our daughter & family in Texas would be able to be home at that time. But plans have changed, and we are excited!

Twelve weeks ago I fixed up a little chart in my planner to help me keep the Christmas prep planning before me - in the midst of so many other things going on. And I cannot believe that now it is just five weeks from our Family Christmas Day.

A few of the things accomplished so far:
~ more ideas collected for some gifts from the kitchen
~ a few more gifts purchased
~ a re-vamping of gift-giving among the family (brought up by our grown kids), making gift-buying a bit easier this year - important as our family continues to grow
~ some cleaning and organization that really needed to be done this year, and I had hoped to get done before Christmas (cleaning out of the coat closet, going through more boxes of my mother's belongings and moving those boxes out of our second guest room, re-organizing of our games and books in family room downstairs)
~ baking of cinnamon rolls yesterday for Christmas morning, getting a start on all the Christmas baking (and thankful for plenty of freezer space to plan ahead)

~ our 21 year-old son came over yesterday, and worked together with my husband in getting more firewood ready for the winter - love to use our wood stove (in the family room downstairs) on cold days, as it adds so much warmth both in temperature and atmosphere. So thankful for a son's great help!

Lots left to do - also with our Family Thanksgiving coming up next week, too, with about 17 family members around the table! And always, praying for my focus to be first of all on keeping in step, and listening - to the One who is the giver of family, and all that is good.

Just thought I'd share my progress - how are your plans coming for the holidays?

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