25 Things to do Before Christmas - #1 Celebrate

#1 Celebrate - If you are celebrating Christmas, best wishes for you and your family for a very happy, joyful time in your celebrations. Enjoy.

If you are not celebrating Christmas, I wish you a peaceful and restful time during this holiday season.

Cheers

25 Things to do Before Christmas - #2 Wrap

#2 Last Minute Wrapping - Last day to shop. But you finished ages ago right? So you have a few small things to finish wrapping while you enjoy watching A Christmas Carol, White Christmas or Miracle on 34th Street for the “umpteenth” time. Remember to buy milk to get you over the holidays.

25 Things to do Before Christmas - #3 Church Services

#3 Attend Church Service - Celebrating Christmas? Haven’t been to church for awhile and wish you had? Check your local newspaper listings for pageant services you might consider taking in this weekend. Many churches have special Christmas Eve services.

Menu Planning Monday

This week I highly recommend you check out OrgJunkie. Laura has posted pictures to go with her scrumptious menu for the week. I wish I could claim the same but creativity but the reality is, I'm cooking very little this week!

Monday - Roast, potatoes, vegies, left over deserts
Tuesday - Caserole from slow cooker
Wednesday - Pasta night this week, tomato sauce with ground beef
Thursday - Turkey, compliments of PSC
Friday - Turkey, ham compliments of in laws

25 Things to do Before Christmas - #6 Volunteer & #5 Gingerbread Houses

#6 Volunteer at a Food Bank - For many people this is a season of giving and yet many more have little to give. If you have often wanted to volunteer at your local food bank, consider giving them a call and slotting in over the holidays.

# 5 Decorate a Gingerbread House with your children - No children? Why not buy a kit and invite your nieces/nephews or the neighbours to come and help you decorate it.

Welcome to the Winter Solstice. Happy First Day of Winter. Now the days in the northern hemisphere get longer - yeah! Sorry to the folks down under who will now start to get less daylight each day.

To our friends honouring their Jewish faith, Happy Hanukkuh.

25 Things to do Before Christmas - #7 Thank You Notes

# 7 Prepare to Write Thank You Notes - The writing of thank you notes for the receipt of gifts, dinners, visits and good gestures is perhaps a dying art. Not only do many of us exist online with communication almost solely through cyberspace, but many of the manners of the previous generation are being lost as quickly as our computer chips speed up and our computer memory expands.

Why not revive this tradition. A handwritten note is a welcome and friendly addition to the usual collection of post holiday bills. To make sure writing thank you notes doesn't become just another stress, book the time into your calendar. Save the space in your schedule. Keep a short list of gifts or events for which you would like to write a thank you and check your note card supply. Last but not least, remember to keep your contact/address list handy.

25 Things to do Before Christmas - #8 Clear out Toys

#8 Clear out Kids' Toys - There will be more toys arriving in a week's time. Why not get a jump start on your organization before they do?

Give your children each a box appropriate to their size and age. Tell them they have 10 minutes to fill the box with toys that they no longer play with, may have outgrown or do not like.

Ten minutes later you could all make a trip to a local charity office to donate the toys. (Depending on your space for storage you may want to save them for a garage sale in May or a toy box for younger sibings.)

With the toys reduced, you will have an opportunity to review if the toys storage for your children is still appropriate for their age. If you have children moving from toddlers to preschool age, do you have shallow bins on the floor for them to access their toys? If you have school age children, have you moved from the shallow bins for preschoolers to sorting bins? Sorting and patterning is one of the first task children master in school. They can do the same thing at home sorting toys into difference coloured bins for pre-readers and labelled bins/boxes for the older children.