Holiday Hustlin’…slightly delayed 🥴
I hope you enjoyed your Christmas season. This was the first year in the last three that I felt “normal” in our celebrating and preparing. Grief had been heavy for me during the holidays. This year, I only cried the first time I listened to “Christmas in Heaven” and even though I thought of the dear ones I have lost, I wasn’t just drowning in my sorrow. I missed them as much as I ever do, sure, but I was able to go beyond the sad and remember more of the good from the past, not just dwell on the what isn’t anymore and will never be again.
If you were in a survive and get through it holiday season, I feel you…been there.
If you were having a great holiday season and then were blindsided by tragedy or illness or destroyed plans…I’m sorry and I hope you’ve been able to smile or get to the other side of that unpleasantness in the weeks since.
So…I started this post over 3 weeks ago and never got it finished and up 🤦🏼♀️ But it’s here now!
It’s 9 days until Christmas…is anyone crazy yet?!?
This year for Advent, I decided to try really, really, REALLY hard to keep calm through all the preparation for the holidays. In the past, I have not done this, and by the time Christmas arrived, I felt like I had single-handedly stolen some of the joy from my children and my family by being such a psycho over things, little things, that didn’t really need to matter that much.
So this year, the focus has been to NOT do that, in the hope of everyone - including me - enjoying the holiday season and the preparation of celebrating Jesus’ birth.
This has required a lot of intentionality on my part. Mainly, the intention to not procrastinate. When I procrastinate, severe overwhelm ensues because I’m not not going to do the the thing I’m procrastinating (Christmas cards, gift buying, food making, house cleaning, Christmas cookies, etc.) but I usually manage to have an epic freak out when we’re coming down to the wire and those things aren’t done yet, but I’ve got to get them done!
Now, there comes a time when it’s okay to admit that life has just happened and there are certain things that have to be set aside until next year - like those beautifully family color coordinated outfit Christmas cards, or Mom’s eggnog recipe that the hubs has had every year since the beginning of his memory capability…you get the idea. It WILL NOT ruin the entire Christmas if certain things have to be skipped.
The first Christmas was a far cry from perfect. There’s really no reason to demand that yours needs to be in order to be successful.
I haven’t been perfect in my attempt at calm this year but I’ve greatly improved over years past. Thank you, Lord and Hallelujah!
I’ve discovered I’m a much better human if there is Christmas music playing in the background a majority of the day…much to my children’s delight and my husband’s annoyance 😏
It’s calming to me. Or helps me focus on what we’re preparing for, maybe. I’m not sure the reason, but when I feel myself getting wound up, I kick on the Christmas tunes and magically, a high-speed come apart is avoided, yet again.
Fast forward back to today…the 9th of January.
He finally did tell me earlier this week, “Christmas is over…no more Christmas music, you’ve worn it out for one year!” I do have the tree and all decorations still up. It’s been on my to do list to put everything away and it conveniently keeps getting delayed ☺️ maybe tomorrow, maybe not!
Wishing you a prosperous New Year full of blessings and beautiful memories, thanks for coming along and listening… For What It’s Worth!