I'm learning one thing during this Fake It Till You Make It holiday campaign 2006. What is it you ask? It's this...
You don't NEED all that STUFF.
You don't NEED to bake and shop and wrap and sing Christmas carols and run around trying to please everyone.
You don't NEED to party and try to cram in all your holiday cheer into one or two weeks.
You can survive without it.
This year I sent out Christmas cards, decorated ONE room in my house, didn't bake a single cookie, and plan to stay home as much as possible for the actual holiday part of things...and I am actually feeling rested and relaxed and GOOD about the holidays. While my friends run around and try to meet Marth Stewart standards, all the while attempting to please immediate and extended family, I sit and sip hot cocoa with my son while we snuggle under a blanket and watch a movie. While they jaunt off to this or that holiday activity, we throw tennis balls around the living room for the dogs to go fetch. While they bake and shop and stress about what they'll serve on Christmas day, I sit and crochet an afghan for a friend.
It really isn't all that complicated. It's that perspective thing coming back around again. It's because I have spent the last two years REALLY appreciating family and friends...so I don't feel the need to hurry hurry hurry to let someone know I love them and am thinking about them right now. There is no need to force out magical family memories. Magical family memories can be made in a simple trip to McDonalds or a Saturday afternoon in a swimming pool or an everyday evening playing trains on the living room floor. You don't need tinsel and garland and fresh-baked cookies for any of it.
I may still bake some cookies. I'll do it because I WANT to do it and not because I feel like I HAVE TO do it. Or maybe I won't. That's the beauty of faking it till you make it...you lose all those pointless expectations you have of yourself (or that you think others have of you). And you smile more. And you actually ENJOY the holidays. Even when you don't plan to. Or maybe BECAUSE you don't plan to.
huh!?!?
Who would have guessed I, of all people, would find holiday spirit?
Merry Christmas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Mom
My mom insisted on living independently. She wanted to live in the two-story house she and my dad built in the 70s, despite the fact that da...
-
Two really good causes. $5 each would make a big difference. And what is that really? A couple fewer expensive cups of coffee? First, The MO...
-
"Unfortunately, honey, the baby is no longer alive.". -Ultrasound doctor
-
When I was 18 years old, I wasn't paying attention while driving and I crashed my parents' van into a cruck (car with a truck bed) t...
4 comments:
Very, very well said, smart lady.
Wow. Merry Christmas to you!
You have the right idea. I baked cookies today with the boys and found myself snapping at both of them. "Why am I doing this?" I asked myself.
No fun at all.
Now if only I knew how to crochet, I would be making an afghan right along with you.
Take care you smart, smart woman.
This is my approach every year. However my inlaws invited themseves over for Christmas dinner. ARG! I don't want to cook on Christmas, i want to play with the kids and watch movies all day.
So far everything I have done is because i want to and i want my kids to enjoy eachother and remember such.
Christmas dinner i feel i have to make now *sigh* pass that hot cocoa.
Post a Comment