Gifts of Togetherness

Brad and I have decided to do Christmas a little differently this year. It started as a conversation at the beginning of  November. We'd just spent too long cleaning up our house before bed. The kids were frustrated. We were frustrated.

"How can we get away with not giving our kids more stuff for Christmas?" I asked Brad.

And so we started talking. Could we give them a trip to Boston? But we wouldn't go until June and that's too far away. Could we just do experience gifts? Movie tickets? Ski lessons?

Then we started talking about what we want Christmas to be for our family. We've never been crazy gift-givers (thanks med school and residency budget), but we definitely need to be more thoughtful about what we give and bring into our house. And December seems to fly by so fast. Last year we didn't even have time to do some of our favorite traditions. We want Christmas to be more meaningful. Less busy. Less stuff. More time together.

We were still mulling things over the week of Thanksgiving when I saw a story on Instagram from a lady I follow (Ralphie Jacobs from Simply on Purpose). She talked about the advent calendar her family does for the month of December. Each day they do an activity together. They call it "Gifts of Togetherness". What a sweet idea.

I talked it over with Brad and we came up with a plan for December. We bought a cute advent calendar and scheduled the things we want to make a priority. The rest we filled in with super simple, sometimes silly, things to do together at home. Santa Claus is taking care of  Christmas wishes, they drew names for each other, and they are receiving experience gifts from Brad and I. Super simple.

We're 10 days in, and I'm already loving it. I think the kids are too. Time, which seemed to be hurtling by, is slowing down a bit. Children are small for such a fleeting time. I'm trying to treasure these nights by the light of the Christmas tree when there's no where else we'd rather be.