Making the Holidays Memorable While Moving

I love tradition and the holidays! October through December is my favorite time of year. From hayrides and pumpkin patches, to my mom's stuffing and football, to breakfast with Santa and the twinkle of the Christmas tree -- I love it all. But this year, I am struggling with how to honor traditions and make the holidays memorable while we are in the middle of a move.

As I mentioned here, we are moving back to the neighborhood I grew up in, just two streets over from my parent's home. In addition, we are downsizing. We are moving from a two story traditional with a garage, overhead attic, walk-in attic space over the garage and a basement, to a split-level with a carport, no attic and no basement. We have to go through everything we own and assess if we really need/want it in our new life. Does it have a use? A place?

The Red Sox fan and I are sick of the clutter and junk that seems to appear as soon as we pick up. We want a home that is neat and tidy, where the kids have enough toys to entertain them, but know where they go when the play ends and actually put them there. (Am I dreaming?) I want my crew to build good organization habits and know where their coats, bags and shoes go when they come home. This takes weeding out, packing purposefully, and strategically setting up our new space.

So, how to do all that and still recognize the season? This weekend we are having a garage sale and will hopefully get rid of a lot of stuff which will make further sorting and packing easier. But, next week is Thanksgiving. Aside from my Publix iconic salt & pepper shakers, there is no evidence of the holiday in our home. Plus, we have no time to do all the cute Thanksgiving crafts on Pinterest. Thankfully, we will be going to Grammy and Pop's for the day, so I guess I can take that pressure off, but what about Christmas?

Our move-in day is uncertain because work is being done on our new home. So, as soon as we get past the garage sale, we will be packing and sorting to be ready to move when we get the go ahead. It seems silly to get out any Christmas decor, but we may be moving in the weekend before Christmas - will we have a tree?

Thankfully, Christmas is so much more than the decorations and in the midst of all the mess of packing, we will honor the season in other simple ways, such as:

• Going to church and observing Advent
• Going to holiday parties
• Participating in the annual Tour of Homes I go on with my mom each year
• Baking cookies at my mom's house with the cousins
• Helping others like donating to Angel Tree and packing a box for Operation Christmas Child
• And get the kid's picture with Santa

What do you think? Do you have any other suggestions for celebrating the season while preparing for a move?