The most wonderful time of the year can often become the most depressing time of the year if your family or lack there of doesn’t fit the pinterest picture, Hallmark family mold. So I’ve compiled a list of things to make your holiday tradition-filled and fabulous, making due with the blessing you have rather than reminiscent of what you have not. The Swiss Family Robinson comes to mind, stranded on an island with no one but themselves yet they find really beautiful ways to make their Holiday’s special. Got me thinking….
I have my husband and my children, a beautiful home, small businesses we love, our health and the best of friends. i have no reason not to celebrate. My extended family may be scattered all over the place but thats just one set back against quite a great list of assets. So here are some ways we have made our holidays special, with just us, and i hope you can put some of them to good use too.
Number ONE is fairly obviously the single most beneficial way to give thanks and gratitude to the One responsible for ALL your benefits. It is the most wonderful way to center yourself and thank God you are alive. Giving back to Him His most perfect gift is the best way to celebrate the day and the One who gave it to you. Pray for your parents and the love that conjured you into this world. Meditate on the gifts you have and invoke a deep thanks for it, praying for those less fortunate. You may feel you have nothing if you recently loss a spouse, God-forbid a child, a job or even a home. But where there is life there is hope and you are alive. It is better to have lived and lost than to never have loved at all. Make use of every moment you have breath left and there is no better act than to assist at Mass.
“The world would better exist without the sun than the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”
-Saint Padre Pio de Pietrelcina
Decorate or craft
If Thanksgiving, no better time to deck the halls, banisters, front doors and everything in between. Get out that Advent wreath, candles and winter garnish. If Christmas then decorating is done but it may be the perfect time to craft. Relax, watch a hallmark movie and pull out that knitting, scrapbooking or whatever is enjoyable to you. On Thanksgiving I like to start working on a generic universal gift that can be gifted.
Get busy in the kitchen, make fabulous confections you never have time for, and share with a neighbor, a coworker, a friend whomever. Reach out touch someone with brotherhood on these blessed days.
Family Football 
With Friends
Nothing says holidays like football. Send out an APB and call all your locals; maybe your block neighbors, your co-workers, or just a group of friends, in this case the Gawley Fam of St. Monica’s Homeschool Group gathers local homeschool families in their group to play, cheer, or just chat on the side lines while watching the game. Kristin Gawley organized, her husband Chris coached while some of their kids played and others spectated making this such a fabulous way to get out and have some fun on a day off. I was so thankful to this family for this and for the beautiful photography that captured the essence of it all as well. Speaking photography…..
Thanksgiving Day is perfect for taking tour Christmas Card photo. On site is so much more meaningful than in a studio. Visit some place special like the North Pole, or a local farm and take a selfie or ask a bystander. Our family photo’s would never be what they are without our special friend and talented photographer, Monette Wilder. This talented homeschool mom jumps at any occasion to shoot on site. I love her shoots above every studio experience.
No matter what one chooses to do I think the bottom line is that one ENJOY the day one has and not burden themselves with the pressure of having the ”ideal day” as advertised across the board.
Her House 