Stuff that doesn't stress me out at Christmas...

1. Cooking

You knew this would be first on the list, didn't you? Listen, if I manage to feed the fam something for breakfast every morning, eat 5/7 lunches at home each week, and I cook something 'real' three-ish nights a week (usually in addition to feeding a few extra people here and there, and also hosting some'thing' each week). I'm winning. Period. Some people love spending their Christmas season in the kitchen cooking wonderful meals filled with love for their family, but I am not one of those people. In my opinion, Christmas is not the time to spend hours in the kitchen when there are Christmas cards to send, lights to hang, and Hallmark movies to watch.

2. Extravagant Advent Calendars

I didn't realize this was such a THING until this year. Apparently we're in a slightly different age bracket than we were the past two years now that we officially have a toddler. There are approximately ONE MILLION wonderful ways to 'do' Advent with your family and just thinking about the options and the activities had me in an internal tailspin so I shut that down QUICK. Let me tell you what we'll be doing...Mommy is doing a She Reads Truth Advent study, Maverick is reading a lot of books about Jesus being born aaaaaand that's it. Occasionally I'll pull out Tripp's Advent devotional at breakfast and I also have a small devotional about the names of Jesus I might read to the boys too. We will serve and give and do a few things here and there this month but nothing that stresses the calendar. Someday we will hit this whole Avent thing harder, but this is not that year.

3. Precious Memory-Making

We do not buy into this idea that our life 100% revolves around our child. We do up Christmas the way we love to, and Mav comes along for the ride...obviously making memories in the process. I do not force special crafts or frosting cookies or hanging ornaments as a family on Josh and Mav. I do those things on my own because I like to, and there are many things we do as a family for some 'extra' fun at Christmas...but for the most part we keep December as CALM as possible. Things that are non-negotiable priorities? Church every week in December and church on Christmas Eve. Everything else is open to being shuffled off the calendar or re-prioritized for another year/time.

4. Family

In the past eight years Josh and I have Christmas-sed together, at some point, family during the holiday season has been stressful. Whether it's been siblings or schedules or plans...I think it's something every married couple has to navigate. Here is what I'll say to you...DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR FAMILY. Not his family or her family, literally YOUR IMMEDIATE NUCLEAR family. If that means staying home on Thanksgiving Day to relax and do your own thing? Do it. If it means saying no to eight extended family Christmas gatherings (this is real, I have a friend who attends eight family Christmases) in the name of your sanity? Do it. This is the last year Josh and I will be rotating Christmas Eve/Day between our families because I want to attend OUR church on Christmas Eve, wake up in OUR house on Christmas Day, and have a relaxing, memorable day filled with OUR own laid-back traditions. I'll be honest, it doesn't seem to be a very popular decision within the ranks but everyone will need to adjust.

5. Too Many Traditions

Here are the traditions I value the most to this day from my own childhood: decorating the house for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving; the Christmas Eve service at church; and presents in the morning in our pajamas. And that's it. So easy. If I can preserve those special basic things for my own family (keep in mind the decorating is all me at this point...so it's really only two things), I'll feel successful. Of course there are other things I love and remember growing up...like getting three presents on Christmas morning because Jesus only received three presents...watching certain ridiculous Christmas movies...coloring by the Christmas tree...playing games...putting a giant 1,000 piece puzzle together...those things can come and go, but my top three aren't going anywhere. Simplify. Prioritize. And be confident about your decision to block extra crap off the calendar. Find what's MOST important for you and your family and stick to it.

6. Baking

I like to eat frosted Christmas sugar cookies, so because of that fact alone, I bake a tube of sugar cookies and frost them. I buy a gingerbread house in a box kit because that's kind of a fun thing to whip out and do as a family on a night in December but it usually ends up being a funny disaster. And therein lies the memory. I like helping my mom with some of her dipping and baking and frosting when we're at home around Christmas, but for some reason that's way more fun than doing it on my own. I certainly wouldn't stress out about unnecessary baking unless it ranks in YOUR top priorities.

Here's a bucket list of some of our other favorite Christmas activities (not mentioned above), in no particular priority order. Just stuff I like to make a list of so if I'm having trouble remembering a fun thing to do on an open Saturday morning, I can go to the list. And because I keep our calendar/schedule super simple, there is margin to take off and do some of this stuff (within reason).

• Host Thanksgiving
• Pella Tour of Homes
• Ames Tour of Homes
• Humboldt Hill
• Humboldt Parade of Trees
• Humboldt Christmas Parade
• Jolly Holiday Lights
• Live Nativity
• Train at Reiman Gardens
• SRT Advent Study
• Dead Week Slumber Party
• Drives to Look at Lights
• Downtown Ames Activities (Train December 10th!)
• Decorate Boersma House
• Decorate Keil House
• Decorate G'mas Tree
• Watch a Christmas Movie in the Man Cave
• Make Christmas Trees
• Visit Strautman Tree Farm
• Hotel Christmas with DeGroot & Sargent Families

Ultimately, if December is filled with too much stuff and stress that we lose sight of what we're celebrating...there's a problem. Maybe it's time for you to pull back and simplify...to say 'no we won't be attending' to work/friends/family. I am not a high-capacity person by nature (I can only do about three things at a time WELL), so accepting that during the holiday's can be tricky. It takes practice, but I can tell you it's so worth it.

Just don't ask me about the year we were fixing up a farmhouse in November and December. 

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!

MmB

Christmas Letter 2017

For the first time, our Christmas cards are OUT before Thanksgiving...I swear, Christmas Mollie is the best version of me. I am NOT this on top of things the other 11 months of the year. It's fine.

"I want a Christmas that whispers, Jesus" - Ann Voskamp

It is no secret that we go all out for Christmas in this house, and we aren't afraid to admit it. It's completely over-the-top and ridiculous and awesome. We love every minute of December. However, the crazier we get about the decorating and the parties and the shopping..the more I crave the presence of Jesus in our home during the holiday season. I don't just want our home decor and hospitality and giving to be eternally focused, I want everything we do during the Christmas season to literally radiate the reality of what we're celebrating...the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

With that in mind, I present to you...our 2017 Christmas letter...

Josh spent the year working himself to death, as per usual. That sentence shouldn't surprise anyone who has known him for any amount of time (and the goal of my Christmas letter this year is to be authentic...so there it is. A couple 90-hour work weeks happened but we survived to tell about it!). He's been a hardworking business owner since he was 12, so it would take some pretty significant "re-programming" to be anything else. At this point he's been operating Boersma Lawn Care longer than he hasn't been...and at the age of 29, I find that to be kind of amazing. Josh has a handful of other opportunities on the table but as we sit right now, he will be the owner and operator of BLC as we head into 2018. He's had a lot of hard over the years, but he's also provided for our family above and beyond what we need and blessed so many others in the process. He has a generous heart of gold once you get past the stress and anxiety his daily life brings.

Josh had a lot of fun finishing off our garage attic into a pretty legit Man Cave last winter (minus the night he got a sliver of wood stuck in his eye); getting his high school mini-bike to run again (this is a big hit amongst all our friends/brothers/uncles); and he has plans for fixing up his old go-cart over the winter.

I spent the year on that wonderful stay-at-home-mom-life grind. Some call young motherhood 'the trenches' and it might feel like that for some, but I've worked really hard to make living my days inside these four walls anything but trench-like. I would wholeheartedly admit that the low point of my year was January/February while Maverick was battling incoming molars, followed by his first ear infection...the sleepless nights returned and it wasn't. pretty. The two-year-molars have yet to strike, but that's Future Mollie's problem. Currently, my priorities include: loving Josh, raising Maverick, weekly BLC deposits + invoicing, spending daily time in the Bible, keeping the house clean, and hanging out with my favorite momma friends. To be honest, those six simple things completely define my year as I've focused on fine-tuning that list to be exactly what it should be. My side-gig as Wannabe Joanna Gaines has kind of exploded, with more and more people asking for my help and offering to pay for my services. For now it's all just a hobby...the last thing we need in this house is more than one stressed business-owner. It's just a little 'decorating ministry,' helping people make their homes and events beautiful because it's an unusual gift I love sharing with the world.

Highlights for me this year include refinishing the deck and spending almost every summer day on it; successfully growing adorable succulents; our 2nd annual fall trip to Galena; and www.boersmasglitterandgrass.blogspot.com.

Maverick freaking turned two on September 1st. He keeps growing and changing so fast, just like they all said would happen. We threw a Top Gun-themed birthday party and he got a sandbox + diggers from mom and dad...and because we do week-long birthday celebrations in this house, a trip to the Blank Park Zoo and Hickory Park were also necessary to fully celebrate the day. Listen, his birthday is as much of a milestone for us as it is for Mav, with having kept him healthy and happy for two whole years and all...so we kind of celebrate ourselves too. Raising a toddler has continually reminded me that Mav is a sinner in need of a Savior and the massive responsibility of raising him terrifies me daily. We love him so much it physically hurts, but he's not ours...we just have him on loan from God. Remembering that on the hard toddler days seems to make them easier...but I'll admit, he hasn't given us a ton of 'toddler-hard'...yet.

If Maverick had enough words to sum up his year, I think the "Tops" would include (in no particular order): pool, orchard, Chick-Fil-A, farmer's market, Target, Pumpkin Patch (our Ames toy store), and weekly visits to D6. This month he's amazing us with how much he's talking real words and sentences all. day. long. He has a special little language I think only we fully understand (blankie is pronounced 'vwankie' in this house)...this new stage is so fun.

As far as other 'news'...the same renters still reside at our acreage and two sweet girls rent our basement. We're still attending Cornerstone Ames and involved in connection group, Bible studies, and other ministries as time/priorities allow. Auntie Jamie is still a semi-permanent fixture at our house (she doesn't live here, though some weeks she might as well) and resident babysitter. You might as well also know we have no pregnant news to share and are totally good with that.

Merry Christmas!
Love,
Josh, Mollie, and Maverick

Why I decorate for Christmas SO EARLY

Might have gone a *little* overboard in our bedroom this year? It's fine.

 Someone has asked me this question at least once a day since the start of November.

The short answer? Because I want to.

The long answer...is more complicated than that.

Here I sit at my parents' house while Maverick naps, preparing for the decorating whirlwind that awaits 11 miles north of here at my home church. Whenever he wakes up, we will hit the road for a non-stop, 36-hour decorating bender to prepare for the 2017 Northwest Iowa Women's Conference. Between four and five hundred women will gather on Saturday for a conference (note: this is at a church in the middle of a literal cornfield...the address is Palmer, Iowa...I don't think I need to point out to you how incredible this is), and this being the fourth year I've tackled the challenge (third year with Mav to tote around) you'd think it would start getting easier.

Let me tell you...decorating this much square footage, NEVER gets easier. This church is huge. Two alters, two entrances, five bathrooms, and upwards of 60 tables. We plan all year. I start shopping in June. We have meetings, exchange novel-length emails, and some days it's all I think about...I talk about it to Jamie when she could care less about my cotton vs. greenery debate. I call my mom to ask if I can borrow her cake plates and then yammer on about decor for a half hour. I borrow chandeliers from my sister-in-law and the whole family is involved in getting them to me. I carefully plan the logistics of hauling all my goods from Ames to church, making sure to save enough room for Maverick's pack and play.

It's a challenge and a blessing and I love that I get to spend this much time at one of the places that signifies 'home' for me...around many of the people that feel like 'home' to me too. It's also fun to exercise my decorating muscles somewhere other than our house. Using this 'decorating gift' of mine isn't always something that directly correlates to advancing the Kingdom of God, but I firmly believe that pretty/creative things can draw people to the Creator, the inventor of beautiful things...the One who is more creative than I could ever hope to be. I love getting to play that small part with this conference.

But dang. It's exhausting. And when I go home on Sunday, I just want to plop down on my couch in front of our Christmas tree, eat Chipotle, and watch a Hallmark movie. And Past Mollie has made sure Future Mollie gets to do that.

Don't get all up in arms about our skipping Thanksgiving. We give Thanksgiving it's due respect. We will watch Thanksgiving movies and make a real turkey and my Thanksgiving table will be decked with white pumpkins and greenery and lovely mismatched china...but  four weeks is simply not enough time for me to enjoy the Christmas decor I dream about all year. It's just not.

If it's not enough time for you either, here is my permission to put up your tree tomorrow. 

After decorating for showers and birthday parties and this amazing women's conference...then Christmas-decorating my parent's house, sometimes the tree at the nursing home, helping Jamie decorate her apartment,  helping Josh's mom with her Christmas decor for a day...and then spending a day at the farm helping G'ma Junice untangle her Christmas tree...I honestly just need my house to be DONE in order to have energy for all of that.

I ALSO NEED MY DOUBLE-EAR INFECTION TO GO AWAY PRONTO BUT THAT'S A WHOLE 'NOTHER THING.

Anyway, there's the reason we put Christmas up so early. I'll be honest, it FEELS really early, even for me. But this is what I did last year and I remember Future Mollie being really thankful. And that's a good enough reason for me.

MmB