Clutter Free Wishes to you from me in the New Year.

I think 2010 will be awesome!!

Merry Christmas!!

Perhaps our deepest emotions at Christmastime are inspired by Christmas bells. They ring throughout the season, like heavenly chimes heralding the happy news that Christmas brings.

Everywhere we rejoice to hear bells ring. As we think about our blessings at this wonderful time of year, let us count among them the great news of the glorious bells of Christmas. They ring with peace, joy and hope that accompanied the holy birth we celebrate.

Merry Christmas to you and to your family from me and my family!

One of life’s little comforts for me is reading before I go to sleep. Life is always busy for me as I know it is for you. We all have long lists of things to do. At this time of year we seem to be even busier with baking, going to or hosting parties, clearing clutter, shopping and doing a myriad of other things. I enjoy reading books about Christmas to keep me in the Christmas spirit.

A charming book by Jan Karon called “Esther’s Gift” was a quick and uplifting book. It is a Mitford Christmas story. Esther prepares to bake her annual batch of her famous and utterly scrumptious orange marmalade cakes. Then her husband calculates the costs and Esther is stunned.

She decides to cut her list way back as not everyone she gives her cakes to always measures up to her expectations. Then the lyrics of a Christmas carol steal into her heart and help remind her of what a gift really means.

Whether you are baking gifts to give, clearing clutter to make room for guests, being delighted by a Christmas program, reading a Christmas story or enjoying the lights of your Christmas tree I wish you a happy holiday season!

I was such an easy child for Santa. Every year all I ever asked for was a doll. Santa wrapped all of our gifts except for my doll which was placed at the back of the tree. Just remembering this brings back the feeling of anticipation and excitement to me. That is probably why I found this story about a doll so poignant when I heard it on the radio this year:

Joe and Barbara had taken their daughter and her friend Joy with them Christmas shopping. Joy kept looking at one particular doll in the toy department. Barbara noticed she kept going back to this one doll and look at her and tenderly touch her arms and hair.

After the shopping trip Barbara found out that Joy’s family had already purchased all of her Christmas gifts. They were useful gifts but Barbara kept thinking about the doll and the look on Joy’s face when she held the doll. Their next pay day Barbara and Joe bought the doll and because they were in and out of their friend’s home knew where the family kept their wrapping paper.

Barbara took some of their wrapping paper and wrapped the doll in matching paper and placed it under their tree towards the back so it wouldn’t be obvious.

Joy and her family didn’t know until Christmas morning that the doll the little girl wanted so badly but never asked for was under the tree. As you can imagine the mother tearfully thanked Barbara and her family for their unexpected gift of love.

I hope you are having a clutter free
and a very happy holiday season!

We were chatting about Christmas cards and I said I would share 3 ideas this week. Here is idea #2:

In the early 80’s we moved to a little Podunk town whose telephone system was interesting to say the least. We could only talk three minutes and then it would cut us off. Honest! And we would of course have to call back and talk another 3 minutes and repeat.

In the “olden days”—the days before cell phones and cable companies offering terrific deals on long distant calls we were very careful about making long distant calls. But those days are over for many of us.

Instead of sending a card, phone your friend to wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I did this to some of my friends last year and they loved it and I loved it. Sometimes I set my timer so I wouldn’t talk forever and I spend a splendid couple of hours sending my “talking cards”.

Have you ever “sent” cards this way? and consider this, there is no need to get get rid of clutter
with a “talking card”!

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was m-a-r-v-e-l-o-u-s! Ours was.

When I was a little girl I loved going to the post office and getting the piles of Christmas cards that were in the box at the post office. My mother sent out about 100 cards in which she put a hand written note in each and every one!

Today with the price of stamps and other factors it seems fewer cards are being sent out and in our home received. Here are 5 Christmas card tips:

•Take your Christmas journal and make your list. By having all of the names and addresses in one place helps with clutter control.
•Clear clutter in your address book and Christmas journal by removing the names of those you have lost track of making it impossible to send cards to. You could check Facebook to see if you can reconnect there.
•You can buy stamps on line through USPS.com and even print postage.
•Ask for help from your family to stamp the envelopes and print out labels on the computer to save you time and stress.
•Mail your cards so they will arrive before Christmas.I still love getting cards and I tape them around the doorway just like when I was a child. I bought a card holder and I made the cutest one ever but I still tape them up. (To clear clutter I gave the card holders away to someone who would use them).