Coffee With Maddie




Let the season begin!

With Halloween behind us, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. For some reason time just seems to fly by after Halloween. For the past few years I’ve tried to eliminate a bit of stress and lower some of the expectations I place on myself at this time of year so that I might actually enjoy the season. I plan to do the same thing this year. Following are some ideas that I plan to implement this year as well as others that I’ve incorporated in the past.

This holiday season I’m actually doing two things differently. A huge difference is that my family has asked my husband and I to host Thanksgiving (I usually wait for someone else to volunteer - this year they called me). Since I’m usually the one who gets asked to bring the vegetable tray to any gathering we attend, this is a stretch and a bit of a stress for me. What I’m doing different than usual, is that I put a condition on hosting the holiday: I’ll do it as long as everyone brings something for the dinner! I’ll fix the bird, the dressing and the potatoes and my family will have to bring the rest. Instead of trying to do everything on my own, everyone will get to share their favorite recipes and talents. The other new stress-reducer I want to add this year is to send out a Thanksgiving letter instead of a Christmas one. I actually enjoy sending something out each year, but it usually ends up being a rush job because the days until Christmas are running out. I’m hoping this year will be different!!

In the past couple of years I’ve done something that’s been very helpful (something that some of you probably do anyway, but it’s new to me). I now set a budget for Christmas gifts. I put together a list of names of everyone I plan to buy gifts for and put a dollar amount behind each name. I add up the dollar amounts and make sure the total doesn’t exceed the budget. If it does, I make changes until I meet my budget. Most importantly, I stick to what I say I’m going to spend! If I see something I really want to buy but it exceeds the budget, I start looking for something else. This has helped me to stay in control of my spending.

Another trick is that in the months before Christmas I start putting aside cash for gifts in an envelope. After the shopping is done I deposit the money in the bank to reimburse our checking account. It took some planning to accomplish this, particularly the first year, but it has been very helpful to us. There were far too many years where we faced large VISA bills after the first of the year and worried about getting everything paid off. It’s definitely worth the effort! Another stress reducer for me has been to shop on-line or through catalogs. The gifts arrive at my doorstep and are ready to be wrapped and put under the tree. One year I did all of my shopping on-line and through catalogs. I didn’t enter the shopping frenzy at all!

For me there’s a lot more to Thanksgiving than the turkey and pumpkin pie, just as there’s more to Christmas than the presents and the tree. Sharing the actual history of the two holidays with my kids is important to me and so is spending time with all those who I love and care about. This year I hope to invest more time with people and less time on all the details and stresses the season usually brings. A year from now I may not remember what anyone bought me or what I had to eat for either of the holiday celebrations, but . . . I’m pretty sure I’ll remember the time I spent with family and friends.

Please let me encourage you to take some time this year and create some good memories for yourself, your family and your friends! Take time to enjoy the season!

Until next week . . . God bless you and yours! -Maddie

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Coffee With Maddie: Archive;
Blessings
Magazine Junkie!
Maddie Goes to College
Changes!

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About the Author;
Maddie is a dear friend from the Midwest who will touch your heart with her gentle stories of home of family. You can just picture yourself at the kitchen table any early morning with Maddie, a fresh cup of coffee, maybe the smell of bacon in the air, and a log on the fire to take out the chill.

Talk to Maddie at ...
Maddie@boomerjournals.com