Updated to link up with This Ain't the Lyceum.

For the first time ever our little family is not traveling during the Christmas season. This gives us a prime opportunity to really embrace our own 12 Days of Christmas! There will be baked treats, Christmas movie extravaganza, and Winter adventures.

There are some basic rules:

• No school or extraneous work
• Prioritize time with friends and family
• Keep the chores to a minimum 

That means I spend my Advent preparing for Christmas in a very literal sense. If mom wants a break for 12 days, there is some prep required! Here's what we do.

Stock the freezer

One of my plans is to have a different cookie or treat every day of the 12 days of Christmas. In order to make that happen, I make a double batch of dough, bake up half for our parish's fundraiser, and freeze the rest of the dough for the Christmas season. Five varieties are done that way so far!

If you wanted, you could stock some freezer meals that could be easily heated up or dumped in the crockpot to minimize your kitchen time during the 12 days.

Deep clean during the Ember Days

Everyone likes to spend time in a clean space, and the Ember Days provides the opportunity to physically prepare your home for Christmas. I do tasks, like scouring the stove and bathtub, that I'm likely to put off doing. 

Everyone pitches in. It's a good time for the kids to go through their things and decide if there are clothes or toys that can be given away or perhaps don't even fit. Even the toddlers can use a rag with vinegar and water to wipe down low windows and dust under tables.

This year, Ember Days fall on December 20, 22, and 23. You can read more about the Ember Days (they come around four times a year!) in this post.

Invite others in

Part of why we bother with a through Advent cleaning is so that it is easy to bring hospitality into our 12 Days observance! You might choose to host an open house, a white elephant exchange, a playdate, or feast day party. If you want to do something big, consider letting people know about it now before the Christmas burnout sets in.

Dream Big

I'm a list person so I am making a list of  12 things to do out, 12 things to do at home, 12 Christmas movies and 12 low energy family ideas. Pinterest is a useful starting place!

But also with a backup plan

We will NOT be completing everything on the lists! On purpose.

This is a marathon celebration and building in flexibility and adaptable ideas are necessary.

Living in Minnesota means there is a good possibility of inclement weather, sub-zero temps, difficulty driving, etc. I am making my lists with the hope that we can do things out, like visit the art museum, but allowing the possibility we may be housebound and reliant on Amazon Prime.

Maybe we just won't FEEL like going out either. Maybe we'd rather roast marshmallows in the fireplace or play a board game. That counts!

Wrap Christmas books

We will be wrapping up 12 Christmas books and numbering them to unwrap one on each of the 12 days. 

These are not all new books! Just wrap books you already have. It's childhood magic!

I saw Rosie at A Blog for My Mom to do this last year and got inspired! She has a great post on Christmas and Advent reads for the 6 and under crowd.

Don't Forget the Adults!

The 12 Days of Christmas are not just for kids! I'm planning some things just for my husband and I. If it's not already planned, it's too easy to just focus on the kids and not feed out relationship too. 

Warm cocktails to try, at home date ideas, and an out of the house date planned.

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If I get ambitious, I'll make Pinterest boards (and maybe get around to updating pinterest :P) with some of the ideas we're planning.

What are you doing for the 12 Days? Do any of your plans need Advent time prep?

Advent - Contain Your Excitement

Advent is coming! Now that we live in the Great White North it is very tempting to deck the halls with Christmas joy right when December 1st hits.

But we wait.

Advent is a season in of itself and it's worth the wait to let Advent do its work. Here's what we do before the joyous day of Christmas arrives!

Advent Wreath and Advent Decorating

On the first Sunday of Advent we put up our Advent wreath, greenery decorations, lights, and hang stockings.

This will be our first year getting a full size Christmas tree! While we'll probably get the tree in early December, I like the idea of not decorating it with ornaments until Gaudete Sunday. The Advent and Christmas seasons are a marathon - best to pace ourselves!

St. Nicholas (December 6th)

Our first Big Deal feast of Winter!
I grew up with the German style tradition of St. Nick filling stockings instead of shoes. I have a whole post on what we put in those stockings and how we celebrate the day.

St. Lucia (December 13th)

Like all good 90s girls, I was introduced to St. Lucia celebrations via American Girl books. This year Therese is finally big enough to play St. Lucia so maybe we'll add in more of the procession this year! Here's what the celebrations looked like last year.

Marian Feasts - Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12th) and Immaculate Conception (December 8th)

There might be a lot of feasts in the month of December, but it would never do to forget mother Mary! I don't do anything too big for these feasts, but they are still celebrated.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of the pro-life movement. We watch the CCC Juan Diego movie and offer a rosary for life.

Immaculate Conception is actually for the conception of Mary, not the conception of Jesus (common mistake). It's also the patron feast day for the United States, and a solemnity. So get thee to mass, pray for the country, and have some sort of white dessert. Boom. Celebrated!

Ember Days - Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday of the 3rd Week of Advent

Those final days of preparation before settling into the welcoming of Christmas! I love Ember Days, but if you've never heard of them you're in good company. They are 3 days toward the beginning of each liturgical season set aside for fasting and prayer and to "to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy." It contains the cleaning and preparing and forces me to stop and enjoy the fruits of our preparations! Read more about them here.

The beauty of letting Advent be Advent is we get to go all out through the whole Christmas season! This is the first year we will not be traveling to family for Christmas, and I'm planning an epic 12 day celebration. More on that later!

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Want more ideas? Check out other Advent posts on this month's CWBN Blog Hop!

Finding a New Beautiful in Postpartum

Life with three kids - it's a turning point. Three is when there are more kids than adults, more needs than time, and the list of "shoulds" ("I should be getting dinner ready by now." "I should be reading more with the big kids.") reaches heights never before seen as a family of four.

I am a type A person. An overdoer. A constant planner. But even my hat juggling skills are being put to the test.

The temptation to hide in my house and pretend I got this is STRONG. Because I DO "got this" to some extent.
I can get the laundry done (even with all the cloth diaper laundry).
I can manage to feed everyone (even with their insistence that three meals a day are necessary).
I can even manage to homeschool since it directs the energy and attention of the big kids.
....but I can do it a lot better, and as a less stressed mom, if I let people help.

For the past weeks since Matt went back to work, we have been blessed to have postpartum doulas with our family once or twice a week. For someone with my personality, it is a helpful and a humbling experience to have the postpartum doulas here. It means allowing someone to step and and do tasks as good, or better, than I.

It also lets me see that, even with the extra set of hands, the list of tasks does not run out. In some odd way it is freeing to know that even if I had two of me it STILL would not be all done. That list of shoulds would be just as long, and no amount of efficiency would allow me to plow through them all to my satisfaction.

Ultimately the postpartum doulas are my scaffold while we come out of postpartum survival mode and continue to move forward into the beauty of being a family of five. Earlier this year I wrote about the need to value myself enough to move out of survival mode and into the beautiful.
The beauty of friendship.
The beauty of faith.
The beauty of art.
The beauty of connection.
Postpartum is an opportunity to find a new beautiful. 

This is the sixth postpartum week for me. These past weeks I have been preparing to return to the arts I love and activity I crave.
But auditioning postpartum is tough.
Returning to an exercise routine and ballet is tough.
The temptation to just let it go and not put myself out there to be rejected over and over again is high. I don't LIKE being rejected, but rejection is necessary to have the opportunity to perform the art I love. I will be more authentically myself if I am vulnerable enough to go through the (likely) rejections.

A Quick St. Nicholas Gift Guide

St. Nicholas Day is on the horizon!

In our house St. Nicholas is the first Big Deal Feast of winter. We put up our stockings on the First Sunday of Advent and await the arrival of St. Nick on December 6th.

But what to put in those stockings? Here are the three things I normally include:

1. "Fancy" Band-aids
2. Chocolate
3. Small toy/game

Yes, I give my kids band-aids as a present. You should see the excitement caused by Disney Princess band-aids!
The kids can use the band-aids however they want, provided they only go on their own bodies. Not in your sister's hair, on the walls, floors, or as "armor" on the baby's arm. (I have reasons for my rules. So many good reasons.)

Sometimes I get chocolate coins, but I find the toddlers give up trying to peel them and just end up eating the foil. Now I mostly get really cheap Halloween candy.

We've done waterpaint books, an Uno game, mini-puzzles, and small balls as the toy gift. Normally these come from the dollar store or the clearance section and they have always been a hit.

Now that my kids are getting older, and there are more of them, I like the idea of having a larger shared gift.

My little kids LOVE their My Little Church Magnet Playset from Wee Believers. They are only allowed to play with it during mass, provided they take turns nicely. This will entertain a preschooler through most of a homily!

For older kids, I love this Magi Ornament Sewing Kit. The ornaments could be put to use as the traveling Wise Men for the 12 Days of Christmas or just hung on the Christmas tree.

This My Pop-Out Nativity would make for a good first Nativity scene if you are short on space.

If you want to use any of these ideas, Wee Believers sent me a discount code for you to use! KIRBY30 will get you 30% off your entire order.

I pop Overnight Cinnamon Rolls into the oven when we wake up, and they are normally about ready for icing by the time everyone has finished exploring the contents of their stockings. Later in the day we'll read books on St. Nicholas and watch the CCC movie Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa.

Simple enough of a celebration to fit into a school/work day, but special enough to stand out for the kids. The magical happy place of liturgical living!

How do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? Is it a big deal in your house?