I popped around blogland a bit last night and WOW, so many of you are all ready for Christmas! Lots of parties and fun stuff going on. I love it! You guys are the best.

Me? We got our tree this weekend, even though to be honest, we didn’t have time or money for a tree with all the moving prep and expenses right now. It was just too hard to disappoint the kids, so we got a Charlie Brown tree. It is smaller and less lush than our usual tree, but it is cute and we let the kids decorate it however they wanted to. They even made their own star for the top. And it is all good.

I have no photos of our humble tree yet, but I found some photos that inspired me at Country Living so this is my attempt at being festive today.

We are doing the best we can to keep up our holiday festiveness and not be overcome with the stress of the move and all that goes along with it!

Here is what I am learning about enjoying the holidays when you are undergoing some stressful times:

Seize the moments.
You may not have the time or money to devote to amazing holiday festivities, but grab memorable moments while you can! Cut out paper snowflakes after dinner or have a quick hot chocolate break (with mini-marshmallows, of course). Look for little moments!
Keep some traditions.
Just downsize them! Simplify some of the things you enjoy about the holidays. Finding creative ways to keep your traditions or at least modify them will mean a lot to everyone and keep depression from setting in. Keep the traditions alive!
Lower your expectations.
During difficult times don’t put extra pressure on yourself to do more than you are able. Discuss with your family what they can expect and why this year might be different. It is a good lesson for everyone in living within your means and knowing what really counts.
Create new traditions for future holidays.
Those Charlie Brown trees and treasured moments creating paper garland might become the best memories ever.

All photos: Country Living

I’m going to be enjoying Kimba’s Holiday Open House during packing and stress breaks today, and you are all welcome to visit all the happenings going on over there! There are lots of other parties going on, so I added some links to my Tumblr page! If you are hosting something and I missed it (please forgive me), you can add a link to your holiday post on Mr. Linky Friday or wait until THIS Friday for the new one! Or leave a message in the comments! I like to stay in the loop!!