Simplify

It's that time of year again -- the time of year when life gets crazy and hectic, I start making lists of things to buy for my kids, my husband, and my family, I start receiving Amazon.com packages, and I eat more chocolate and cookies than I should. The Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons have always been my favorite holidays. I love getting together with family, eating big meals (and lots of desserts), laughing and playing games, and exchanging gifts. But ever since having kids (or at least since the first one turned three), the holiday season is less fun and more stress. And you know what? I'm done. I'm done with the stress. I'm done with the kids throwing tantrums on Christmas morning because they want the present their brother got. I'm done with stuff!

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately (a dangerous thing, I know), and most of the blogs I'm perusing are about getting rid of stuff. One blog about a family that got ride of all but two of their toys. No really, two toys in the house for their two kids. Two blogs about not exchanging a single gift on Christmas morning. And another blog about simplifying Christmas by giving your kids only 4 gifts: "One thing you want, one thing you need, one thing you wear, one thing you read." I'm soaking it all in, talking with my husband (and forcing him to read these blogs) and praying through what I want the holiday and Christmas season to look like for our family. I haven't gotten it all figured out yet, but here's a few things we're doing to simplify not only the holidays, but our lives as well:

1) Let's start with birthdays (since Mac's birthday is the week before Thanksgiving, it feels like Christmas starts then and lasts for over a month). I am not a creative person. I don't sew. I don't paint. I don't craft. So planning themed birthday parties complete with homemade cakes with a cakey excavator digging up dirt and rocks is way out of my league. And since when did party favors become the thing to do?! Have people always bought gifts to send home with all the kids who come to the party?! I've been trying to keep up with all my crafty, Pinterest-inspired friends, but this year, I decided to quit. I'm dropping out of the race. I am the most competitive person in the world, but I just decided that competing for best birthday party isn't a competition I can win (nor do I want to try). While trying to pipe homemade frosting onto chocolate cupcakes to make them look "fancy" my grandpa said to me, "Just take a knife and smear it on there." And I looked at him and thought "he's a smart guy." So I did. I plopped the icing on those cupcakes, stuck a few dye-free M&Ms on top (Candy Unjunked people -- you can buy it at Target. It's freakin' awesome.) and handed them out to the kids. And you know what? They loved them! They devoured them. There were chocolate crumbs all over the table and floor and not one of those 4-year old boys mentioned the fact that my cupcakes looked like crap and didn't form the shape of any kind of construction vehicle or animal. Because in reality, 4-year old boys could care less what their stupid cupcakes look like. And I didn't plan anything elaborate either -- we played with balloons, read some Pete the Cat books (because my son loves them), colored a picture and played. And I handed each kid an organic, dye-free sucker when they walked out the door. Oh, and did I mention that I told people on the invitation that we did NOT want presents? In fact, a few people brought gifts and we put them out of sight and opened them after everyone had gone home. I get sick of kids arguing over gifts (my oldest tends to be particularly possessive of his things), and I wanted to spare myself from the crying and tantrums. And it worked! Best birthday party ever. I am vowing to never again do a themed party, pipe icing onto a cake, or open presents. While I am always impressed by those of you who can do these things and rock it, I am not one of you. I'll hide my crappy looking cupcakes in a corner and eat them all by myself later if necessary.

2) Stuff. We're getting rid of it. I have been secretly going downstairs and removing toys every other night and hiding them away. I'm tired of picking them up. I'm tired of stepping on one of the 5 different kinds of blocks we have. And I'm tired of my kids taking every container that holds toys, dumping them on the floor, and proceeding to make them into sets of drums that they pound on. Maybe I'll just keep all the containers and get rid of the toys -- much easier to clean up later. Do kids really need this many toys?! My kids haven't even noticed that about 25% of their toys have disappeared. Seriously -- haven't asked for even one of them. And the more I watch them play creatively with things that aren't even toys, the more excited I get to sneak down after bedtime and hide away a few more.

3) Christmas. We still haven't decided for sure what this will look like. But we know that this year we aren't buying any toys. Not one. Our kids are getting K-State t-shirts, K-State hats, sunglasses, and a $1 flashlight (I know a headlamp would be better, but you can't find one for a buck). There won't be fights over toys on Christmas morning. There won't be hours spent trying to unscrew toys from their boxes (since when did toys come with boxes that have screws in them?!), and there won't be pieces of things scattered all over the floor. Plus, as previously noted, we're trying to get rid of stuff, not collect more! And as somewhat of a tree hugger, I'm so glad we won't have millions of toys requiring tons of batteries that have to be replaced (I guess technically the flashlights have batteries, but they're also for safety, since we currently don't have a working one in the house). Plus, isn't Christmas supposed to be about Christ anyway? How can Christ compete with Santa to a kid? Impossible. I want our kids to understand that Christmas (and really, life in general) isn't about them. It's about God. It's about giving to others. It's about loving God by giving to others. We can let every Christmas get more chaotic, more complicated, or we can choose to live simply, to celebrate the simplicity of the Gospel -- that God became a man and came to earth to die for our sins. That's what we're celebrating! Not consumerism and materialism and stuff. And we're choosing this year to be more proactive about celebrating what Christmas is really about, about simplifying our holidays and our life, about caring more about others than we do ourselves. If you're interested in reading more about changing the way your family does Christmas, check out Ann Voskamp's blog (www.aholyexperience.com) and Jen Hatmaker's blog ( www.jenhatmaker.com) and another good one: thepracticalperfeccionista.wordpress.com.

Please know that I'm not judging you if you're a Black Friday shopper, a thousand Christmas gifts giver, or a hoarder (well, I may judge you if you're a hoarder -- the people on those shows are crazy). Each family needs to decide what works for them -- Santa or no Santa, gifts or no gifts, etc. I just know that for our family, it's time to make a change and simplify.

Is your family trying to simplify? Any ideas you can share?