My mission for December was to continue with my Christmas Countdown binder and set up a new tradition. The Countdown Binder was a complete and total failure. I flopped like a fish out of water. I thought this plan would work great for me and my family but I was so wrong. I quickly discovered that this plan really needed to be revised and I spent more time revising than I did doing.
In 2009, I had the privilage to work as one of Santa's elves. We visited a daycare for children with special needs. It was so much fun to see the kid's eyes light up when they got their gift from Santa or from one of the elves. Many of the children needed help opening the gifts due to their specific disability but that didn't matter one bit. These children glowed! That day two years ago changed my entire outlook on donating. When Christmas came round I was always so worried about trying to find that one special gift for the person who has everything. This year, we decided that money would be better spent on children who need it. Money we would normally spend on our family (parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc) was going to go to buy gifts to donate for the Toy Drive and we did! We had a blast shopping and this will be our new tradition. So this year if that was the only thing I accomplished that was on my to-do list, I think that was the most important of all.
The Fire Department also did things a little different this year. Instead of visiting a location, each station was given a list of families with the child's name, age and sex so toys could be chosen accordingly. From that list a bag of toys was put together for each child and then put into one big bag for each family. Volunteers then came and wrapped the gifts. Originally only I was going to go wrap, but something came up and I decided to bring I was only going to go but I decided to bring my 8 yr daughter with me. Together we wrapped 25+ toys. This was also the very first time she wrapped a gift and although a little frustrated it looked great!
Now on to the New Year! I hope you had a fantastic day with your family and friends ringing in the first day of 2011. We sure did. We went to see Tangled and then came home to watch Toy Story 3. Toy Story 3 was very emotional for my little girl. The movie itself was emotional but on top of that Toy Story was a favorite of Kira and her 'boyfriend' Anton who moved to Australia with his family. The ball dropping in Time Square quickly got her attention and we began the big countdown to 2011 followed by fireworks. It may not have been much but we were surrounded by family and to us that is what matters most.
Resolutions? It seems like everyone has the same ones every year. Lose weight, go to the gym, stop smoking, etc. I used to make resolutions but haven't for several years because I always felt miserable at the end of the year when I didn't accomplish what I wanted. This year, I have decided to go with little goals that are achievable and more realistic! And with the help of Mama's Mission of the Month, I think they can be accomplished!
The main mission for January is to going to be a rolling mission and that is to learn how to use my new Christmas gifts -- A Cricut Cutting Machine and a Gypsy. This was a complete surprise (then again isn't it supposed to be a surprise). I loved doing all things crafty and then I fell into this deep dark pit and haven't been able to pull myself out and get back to work on all those craft projects. My husband apparently was seeing this too and decided I needed a kick-start. I have a feeling there will be a number of new cartridges and a lot of card stock in my future.
Now here are a couple more items I want to work on this month as well.
- Eat at the kitchen table 3 out of 7 days of the week. (More if possible.)
Hubs and I have decided that we would like to have more meals at the kitchen table, but it is so frequently filled with school stuff, that we often find ourselves eating at the coffee table. It also is a hand-me-down that when wiped off has a faint hint of something dead. Which leads me right into #2. - Shop for a new kitchen table and chairs.
- Liven up the blog (and blog consistently)!
My blog was originally just for our homeschool. I started it for family and friends who were interested in what we were doing and well, I seemed to have fallen off the wagon. Don't get me wrong, I love writing, but I sometimes wonder what I should blog about. I am sure you don't want to hear that a bird flew into my window and scared the poop out of me or how our plans changed because the van broke down.
So there you go my January mission(s) of the Month!
