Twice the Family Fun

On Saturday, we had the Family Fun of putting up Christmas decorations…twice. In the morning, we helped our dear friend, Cindy, decorate her Bed and Breakfast. Cindy is a very flexible person when it comes to decorating, so we had a great time being creative with her decorations. She let the kids do pretty much whatever they wanted to do in setting up her Christmas villages and stringing garland everywhere. AND she fed them all pizza when we were done.

In the evening, we began putting up our decorations. Joey got the lights up, which set the mood for the rest of the decorating. And instead of making it a marathon session on Saturday, we put up some decorations on Sunday afternoon, too.

I used to have some expectation of the decorating being a scene from a Christmas movie, with carols playing in the background and every child cooperatively, joyfully participating. The reality is that the interest varies among the kids. This year, Charlotte, Eleanor, Lydia and Margaret were all enthusiasm while the other kids drifted in and out. (Anne was quite enthralled, too, but she was more interested in how great the lights looked and how much she could get away with undecorating the tree.) Because of all of the practice I’ve had with Flylady of recognizing and letting go of perfectionism, decorating really was Family Fun. It was okay that not everyone was participating every moment of the process. It was okay that we got it done in spurts.

So, our home is festively arrayed. The lights are twinkling. The tree is laden with a motley combination of well-loved ornaments. Our advent calendars are hung and ready for today. And we had Family Fun doing it.

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Tags: Christmas, decorations, family fun