Heartfelt & Handmade Holidays With the girls of Roots & Wings Co.

Week 1 - Setting Priorities and Determining What's Important

Have you met the girls of Roots & Wings Co.? I've linked to them before and I am always inspired by the sheer craftiness of these girls. They have their share of parenting struggles and keep it real, which of course I love. They deal with food allergies (sound familar?) and EE and autism. It really stands out to me from reading their blog how important family is to them.

So...they are hosting 8 Weeks of Heartfelt & Handmade Holidays. I hope I can keep up with them and share in their weekly themes. This week's focus is Setting Priorites and Determining What's Important. In doing this, they encourage family discussion and consideration of what feelings, values and memories you want your holidays to be filled with.

Overall, when I think of the feelings of Christmas I think of love, warmth, genorosity, and kindness. I really get struck by the magical feeling around Christmas time. As a kid with my parents divorced and both remarried, we had the blessing of celebrating Christmas multiple times during each holiday season. Although I have heard that Christmas is often known as The Dysfunctional Family Olympics, and we definitely had our share of Christmas Chaos, overall, I love Christmas and the feelings it stirs up in me...I want to create those same wonderful feelings in our home all year round but especially at Christmas.

I want to instill in my daughter values of kindness, consideration for others, gratitude and creativity, as well as a deep appreciation for family connectedness and traditions.

I want to be mindful of the activities that we do during the holidays and the traditions that we create. These are the things that memories are made of. When my daughter looks back on the holidays I want her to have memories filled with decorating the house as a family, baking yummy goodies for ourselves and to share with friends and family, memories of creating handmade decorations and gifts for those we love. Some of our family traditions include decorating the house Thanksgiving weekend, going to see Santa, hosting a Christmas Eve Open House (or going to Christmas Eve service at church when we're at my Mom's in Canada for Christmas), driving around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights, going for a walk in the evening while it's snowing when we're in Canada or driving to the mountains for a day in the snow when we're home in California for Christmas.

The Roots & Wings Co. girls suggest scheduling the events and activities, put them on the calendar! I'm going to do this because if it's on the calendar we're much more likely to make sure it happens. I'm also going to schedule a back up date for the most important events. Winter means lots of sickness in our house so I want to make sure we don't miss out on seeing Santa because Taylor was sick.

Christmas isn't about creating The Perfect Norman Rockwell Painting Worthy Holiday. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the pressure and hussle and bustle of the holiday season, but the holidays are about being together with the ones you love, doing things that bring you and your family joy and showing the people you love how much you care about them. It's also about recognizing those less fortunate while showing gratitude for your blessings, while remembering the true spirit of Christmas.

What are your holiday traditions? What memories do you want to create with your children? What's important to you this holiday season?

Leave your comments here, and share them on your own blog and leave a link at Roots & Wings Co.