The holidays are beautiful, fun and exciting--- depending on your perspective, of course! Our family LIVES for the holiday season, and once Halloween is over we start counting down until we can break out the holiday decorations and turn on the music (which has already begun)! A challenging part of parenting during this season, is how to enjoy the holidays & teach giving & thankfulness, among the bombardment of materialism & GETTING. This challenge has become ever increasing as the kids get older, and their expectations seem to grow with the challenge.

So this year we’ve decided to set some gift guidelines. You might find our guideline useful or create one of your own, using ours as a model... In addition to our gift guideline, throughout the season we’ll be communicating to our kids the importance of GIVING and indulging in the SIMPLE pleasures of  the season like decorations, hot cocoa moments, movies on the sofa, donating to those in need and time spent as a family that can inspire KINDNESS and TOGETHERNESS as the focus.

To keep the kid's expectations (and our shopping) centered we’re enacting an Eight Gift Guideline:

1 Thing They Want

1 Thing They Need

1 Thing They Wear

1 Thing They Read

1 Thing To Learn

1 Thing to Play

1 Thing To Share

1 Thing They Feed

(This last one can feed the soul if a new pet is out of the question, like it is for us!)

Happy Holidays!! Be sure to drink some hot cocoa snuggled on the sofa this season! It’s the greatest opportunity to share some of your favorite childhood memories of the holidays with your kids… I guarantee they’ll LOVE connecting to the child you used to be!