…all the presents you’ve collected so far.  I tend to get overhwelmed with the growing pile.  We limited it to 2 gifts for each of our kids.  But a lot of kids x 2 = a lot of gifts. Plus I shopped for 8 of my 14 nieces and nephews (I love the rest too, but we draw names to reduce the burden), 3 white elephant exchanges, great-grandma’s, teacher gifts…

 Awkward Wrapping Selfie–

That floor to ceiling curtain behind me is made of $5 sheets thumbtacked to the ceiling, to hide studs, pipes and insulation while we save up for phase 2 of our master bedroom remodel.

Sometimes I forget what I bought, even though I write it down.  And I get this feeling that I didn’t buy enough and am tempted to over buy.  So as I wrap, I change the color of the gift in my Christmas Plan.  Blue is purchased and wrapped; Green is here but not wrapped yet; Red is ordered but hasn’t arrived yet; Orange is still needing to be stitched up; yellow is going in the stocking; black is still just an idea that I probably won’t act on–but might get to put in the stocking.

This is about the time I start to feel totally inadequate.  Here are the things I tell myself:

1.  Kids do not compare prices on gifts to see who you spent more on, but they do notice if one brother opens 3 gifts, and they opened 2.  So group things together if needed to make the number of packages the same.

2.  Christmas isn’t about gifts.  It’s about Jesus.  We can’t buy the perfect gift–that was Jesus.

3.  Focus the celebration on time together as a family.

4.  Nothing has to be perfect.  What makes the day “perfect” for the kids won’t be the same thing that makes it perfect for me.  Freaking out about the things that are ONLY important to me (like a clean house, and way too many DIY projects….) will only make this time of year less perfect for them.

5.  It’s ok not to have a 12 day of Christmas list, an advent calendar, an elf on a shelf, or chocolate fondu.  The best gift we can give our families is a happy Mama who is PRESENT with them. (cough, cough….electronic free..except maybe for a picture or two..or a Hallmark channel movie…maybe.)

Which is one reason I love the Nester’s post here. Although, seriously, her no effort style would take a lot of effort for me to pull off….I love it.  I’m wondering how I can copy the look of her messy kitchen sink. I keep thinking if I look at it long enough I will absorb the mindset and be able to throw stuff on the wall and make it look good too.  There’s some kind of force behind it.  She’s a Jedi I’m sure.

Psst… If you were slightly interested in the natural household and personal products I talked about here, you should put in a request for more information.  I’ll call you and we can chat about it.  The one time membership fee is only $1 through December 22nd.  It’s the perfect time to give it a try.