This year I’ve decided to Delegate Christmas & Remain Sane This Holiday Season. I’m so pleased to announce that Christmas 2019 productions in our home are brought to us this year by my children (mommy and daddy contributed gifts of course).
With six kids, homeschooling, taking care of a toddler, running the home (modern homemaking), running the blog, and maintaining family relationships -I tell you, I can spin all these plates (in a scheduled rotation). It’s not always easy but I can do it. The only problem is if you add just one more plate everything crashes.
A Shift
For the last couple years I’ve not been able to make Christmas as special as I would have liked because of my other responsibilities as a homeschool mom. Lately I’ve been realizing a shift in the times though. I’ve known for awhile what amazing helpers my kids are growing into.
I’ve been seeing that if I slow down and designate a few chores, that what would be a day’s worth of work (for me alone) is completed in an hour or less when we work together.
There’s been another change in the tides lately though. Unlike prior years I’m starting to find that less steps are forgotten and the older kids are getting better about doing jobs well/all the way.
I discovered this year that I could pass off some select activities like the holiday festivities and that I have eager and able hands to take over.
I first noticed this when I passed off the holiday decor plate this Fall season. I planned a few fall bucket list activities and then put my daughter in charge of autumn festivities after she offered to take them on. I was a little slow to let go of the reigns but I knew I’d never be able to make it very special with all the other responsibilities I had and still maintain my health with the thyroid issues I’ve been having.
So I passed the torch to my her and she was thrilled! She did such a much better job than I ever could have. For weeks she carried out fun art activities and decor for the kids and helped them. She made this autumn one of the most special for our family!
Then came Thanksgiving. We wanted to have family over, but I didn’t know how I was going to pull it off. So we made a plan that the day before Thanksgiving we would pull together and get the food cooked so we could have family and fun on Thanksgiving day. With the exception of the oldest (who’s school workload has increased this year and needed to study) the kids worked by my side and we had so much fun cooking together and using all the math skills we’ve learned with fractions and following directions.
None of the kids complained once. There was so much joy and excitement in the air!
As a result I was able to keep all the critical plates spinning in the days prior to this and we had a beautiful, and blessed Thanksgiving with family.
Sorry, this is the only picture I got because we were all having too much fun to take pictures! I know, if I was a more dutiful blogger I would have gotten pictures of the food and everything for you all. I know. Bad, bad blogger.
I’ll try harder for Christmas, lol!
Setting the Mood With Music
I think we can all agree, music is such a very special part of Christmas!
Our family is a little picky about Christmas music, and I’ll admit we probably have very unique taste. We like peaceful Christmas music for sure-it helps offset the chaos (and noise) that can come with having such a big family.
The hubby and kids started making Christmas music selections before Thanksgiving this year. I put together a small but beautiful playlist of their selections.
Although there are only three videos the last one is 3 hours and it’s perfect for background music!
Delegate Christmas & Remain Sane This Holiday Season
So here’s how I’ve been delegating Christmas productions so far and kept from trying to spin one more plate that I really just can’t.
It wasn’t too complicated. I said to the kids, “If you clean the house today you can go get the decorations and decorate for Christmas.”
Usually it takes a half a day or more to clean the house. They did it in a couple hours. Next thing you know Christmas productions 2019 were in full swing.
My kids have always helped in years past with decorating for Christmas, but this year instead of them helping mama, mama helped them when and if needed. They were in charge. Let’s just say, there was no complaining. This appears to be something they’ve waited their entire lives for. With all the excitement you’d have thought I gave them a car.
I love cooking and decorating for the holiday’s. I know that soon I’ll be able to really get into it again, but for now I need to pass as much of the holiday planning off to the kids, supervise and not complain about how they choose to do things.
This does require a fair amount of tongue biting on my part, I’ll admit. Like when I saw this mini gnome’s placement. At first I bumbled. “I’m not sure that should go there.” The child that placed it there went over to move it. I caught myself. Suddenly the humor and preciousness of how kids decorate got me. “Never mind, it’s perfect. Leave it there. Let me get a picture.” My child smiled and we giggled together at the mini gnome on top of the Christmas tree.
This year something EXTRA special happened.
All this buzz went down on Saturday, when daddy was around. Instead of working in the garage and helping me with laundry, all the excitement drew him in and he joined the kids. I realized we’ve always done the Christmas decorating when he was at work before. I think from now on we will do them when daddy’s around. He seemed to enjoy being a part of the process. It was special to watch him as he peacefully took it all in and even got involved when needed.
My hubby will never admit this, but he loves Christmas. We discovered this last year when he would go over and plug the Christmas tree in when he got off work after seeing the lights were off, and because when he’s home on weekends he YouTube’s his favorite Christmas songs and plays them for us all.
He loves the Trans Siberian Orchestra’s version Carol of the Bells and Mary Did You Know by Luna Lee (on the video playlist above).
The Results
I think everyone did such a lovely job decorating for Christmas! Take a look!
Aren’t these Christmas gnomes the coolest!?!?! I don’t know why, I just love gnomes!
I couldn’t find any just like mine but I found some that are similar on Amazon for you.
(affiliate link)
Food
Isn’t the food one of the most fun parts of the holidays? I know our family really get’s into it. My husband and the kids planned our Christmas menu for Christmas week. I’ll definitely be taking advantage of our local Walmart’s grocery pickup rather than fighting crowds. Have you seen how easy grocery pickup is yet? Here’s a video I made of how easy it is!
We are probably going to be having fun with this menu all month long because I’ve learned to make two or three batches of pretty much everything so that I’m not cooking all the time.
Here’s what they’ve planned so far;
Christmas Week Menu
- cookies (of course)
- cinnamon rolls
- Christmas puddings (I don’t know what this is. My 6 year old requested it. So I guess one of the kids will make vanilla pudding?
- Buckeyes (hubby has been talking about these for months and said he’s making them for Christmas)
- Christmas ham (turkey)
- Roasted baby potatoes
- Green beans
- My Caesar Salad
- Popcorn
Of course I’ll be making my Baklava. I’ve made this treat for the holidays for years!
So tell us, what are your plans for Christmas this year? Do you have older kids that you can pass the Christmas torch on to? Tell me how you roll with the Holiday’s in the comments section below!
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