Bringing it Home; Christmas Countdown

bring it home with sarah and teneal christmas i know it's not december yet mariah harry said it doesn't like christmas at all and there's a reason for that it's hot outside that's the song baby please come home i love that song i do too but it's not time for sarah i'm not quite ready for that either so why in the world are we playing this but we are going to talk today about some things that we can do now in the summer late summer here to kind of get ready for the holidays with our shorts and flip-flops on yeah okay so stick with us okay don't turn it off yet but y'all know how it is school's been in about a minute we're gonna turn around it's gonna be halloween then it's down i mean like it's a roller coaster from yeah it's gonna keep going yes it seems like every year those weeks you know from october to december just fly by you know and a lot of times um we have intentions of doing things that never get done because we run out of time yes and it's done you know and we want to encourage everybody to relax and enjoy the season when it gets here you know so we're gonna give y'all some tips today on things you can do now yes in the summer to prepare for the busy days of the holiday season all right so number one on my list is actually making a list checking it how many times twice so there's several lists we want to talk about but we want to make a list write down kind of for your gifts everything and every person we need to decide the gift now you don't decide what okay but who okay make a list of who you need to purchase for if there's annual parties that you go to you know are going to happen you know you probably know your family get-togethers you know even if you don't get together you're going to be sending a gift so it's the office gift exchange if there is one if you do something at church with a friend group don't make a list of all the gifts you've got to buy okay so we need to know the who yes that's definitely a big a big list that you need to make i've got a list i need to make okay really what i need to do is go through my ornaments my my stash of wrapping paper my decorations in general and just kind of see what needs to stay some stuff needs to go that's right you need to clean it out it needs to be cleaned out and i need to make a list of what i need to replenish you know are some of the lights out do they need replacing um this is a good time to do that isn't it it is and you will find that stores are already putting christmas things out and running sales so now's a good time to replace them don't want to do it because everybody may not be making that mad dash to go and purchase you know christmas lights or wrapping paper so if you can catch it on sale now going to get it you'll have it you want to worry about it well i got something that people could be doing now if you're planning to do some diy projects i don't know if you're going to make some of your own decor you're going to do some handmade gifts whatever you're going to do you can start that now because let's face it i'm not the craftiest person you'll ever meet it usually takes me three times as long to make something that i saw online then it does the person's actually making it so you can start that now you can like i said most stores are stocking shelves with holiday things christmas thanksgiving fall halloween so if you got some diy you want to do for the last three months of the year don't get started then you can enjoy using it you're going to be like oh it's two weeks till christmas i have marisa right okay go do that yes another thing we want to talk about is the christmas card you'll know how important now this is a production for some families i mean the outfits what are you going to do the family pajamas what are you going to do glam uh what's the setting yeah is it going to be on location are you going to the backdrop this takes some time and effort or if you're like us i'm like hey everybody stand here real quick yeah you're right so why can't you do that now you may you know take one this fall that you really want to use on your christmas card go back to what you've done this year pull some from what you've already got but don't wait until the last minute because then you're going to be with everybody else trying to get them printed or my shipping is not here or you know i haven't made my christmas card list oh another list okay addresses change they do there's people that we can cross off the list or there may be we need to add to the card yeah and people move so you want to make sure that you have that but don't want to take care of that christmas card you you know take advantage a lot of people that order online there's a lot of sales leading up to christmas don't want to take advantage of an early bird sale you know you can even use your local stores that print for you just get it done it's not it's not what they look at you kind of strange to come and get your christmas cards printed next week but hey let them look at the stranger getting ahead so we talked about some stuff you may need to buy and replace um this sounds like it's going to cost a little money so uh one of the things that i want to recommend is that people go ahead and start saving money yeah you know there have been some opportunities this year with the advanced child tax credit payments coming out um you know there are other things that we're getting we may need to start saving money if we hopefully we've already started hopefully if we have not if all of our bills are paid obligations are met you know those child tax credit funds that might be a good way to start saving towards christmas for the children you know i want to just throw this number out there because it's kind of astounding when you hear it but the average american household spends over fifteen hundred dollars on just christmas like so any of the seasonal expenses you know food gifts decoration travel where's that extra money right so if you start thinking about it now or putting back you know twenty dollars here fifty dollars there whatever you can do um you know you'll have that built up for when you start spending because again we don't want to get right at christmas and realize we don't have money and need to go into expensive debt no we don't want to pay for christmas in january february march no you're right and you know we know what's coming guys this is not a chonker so start saving now and think about that all these lists can help you also with a budget on how you're going to spend that christmas money and another thing along those lines is there's a ton of summer sales going on at the end of the season yeah i mean look look at those sales there might be something the perfect gift for your you know daughter-in-law or your son or you know your best friend you may see the perfect thing well there's nothing stopping you from doing it in august and you know i guess we miss out when we see things because our mind's just not on christmas yet right and we're missing out on deals yes so keep your eyes still right and again you know be fiscally responsible like you know if it truly is a deal is it worth me purchasing right now but don't forget about it you know keep that list and right now what you've purchased okay you know you and i both like to cook obviously we experiment so now might be the chance to look at some new recipes if you want to debut them this holiday season and you don't want thanksgiving day or christmas day to be the day you might want to do a trial run so some of those things can be made uh next month or this fall just kind of see if you like them or if you think they're going to be appropriate for your family offering i agree just try it out now a dish here a dish there i mean you may be trying to do the same thing every year but i you know i like to try different desserts every year and stuff so it is fun to kind of do a trial run and then if it's really good you can't wait to make it again if it's not good you won't waste the money on that so definitely and if you like to give home preserved gifts well the time is perfect you know jams and jellies and things like that salsa relishes they will keep and who doesn't love getting that stuff so definitely i love that recipe idea and another fun one just to kind of wrap it up there may be something you've always wanted to do with the holidays you know a trip or just an experience or um i don't know you want to get something new for your family every year we add a christmas decoration that's just kind of our family thing well you know start start a new tradition look for something you and your family can do together whether it's an advent calendar or you know going to volunteer as a family at the food kitchen could be a family tradition because the holidays are not about the gifts it's about the time with family and friends and what we can do to bless others and we have to start that with our children you know we have to instill that in the younger family members uh so that they realize that it's not all about the gifts under the tree that's right so that may be a tradition you want to start with your family and we encourage that or you know adopt a family there's plenty of organizations that are looking for uh families to be adopted that may be something that you choose to do this year and you can open your child's eyes to christmas shop for a child that's about their same age you know that can really be meaningful to a child yeah so even though the right here is that it's not like christmas at all we're gonna make it like christmas we're gonna go ahead and get started uh so that we've got a grasp on the season way before you get here plan ahead so you can really enjoy those moments thank you all for joining us today for this episode in the words of mr bob marley live the life you love and love the life you live merry christmas guys oh yeah not yet see you soon