Some years Christmas time usually leaves me frazzled, anxious, worn out & disappointed. But this year I don’t feel any of those things! I am so in love with this whole Christmas season & celebrating the birth of Jesus.
I’m most thankful that I had another year of making memories with my little family. Praise Jesus for these good times!
Here is what’s working for me this year:
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I chose not to make platters of cookies for all of the neighbors. I did however do simple neighbor gifts (I’ll post this soon!).
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The 2 cookie platters that I did make were filled with 2/3 store bought goodies and 1/3 homemade cookies… that were from a mix… yes, I really did that. & they were lovely and appreciated all the same. –Am I really the same person who wrote a few years ago about cutting out processed food and only making all natural? Yeah, well, uh… that girl had a 3rd baby and needs a break right now.
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I chose not to worry about putting a price on gifts & trying to keep it even for everyone. Shopping is so much more fun when done from the heart and not the wallet. Hopefully this doesn’t backfire and leave anyone comparing (or complaining).
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We are not exchanging gifts between us siblings. This is kind of sad, but it cuts out A BOAT LOAD of stress! Those brothers of mine are already spoiled, and very difficult to shop for!
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We are lightly homeschooling through the holidays. Rather than taking a week or two off and trying to get back into routine, we are just lightly schooling through it all. In all honesty, I think we are getting MORE done, when I am more relaxed and not pushing the schedule.
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I’m throwing out random acts of kindness every.single.place I can. I don’t want to reveal too much, because that would suck the joy right outta the whole shebang. I do want to encourage you to just bless someone, anyone, in anyway you can. Whether you get to stick around and see their reaction or just imagine what their expression was, it feels SO good either way.
Oh and here’s a silly one:
- We put the great big over sized Christmas tree downstairs and let the big kids load it full of ornaments just as they wanted to. The basement is off limits to the toddler, so she and the tree are both safer that way.
- We bought a smaller (6.5ft x 3ft) pre-lit tree for upstairs. I only placed one ornament on it. Um, because I bought the ornament, came home, hung it on the tree, and it hasn’t moved yet!
All of these little cut backs have made it easier to put my time, money and energy into the things I feel more passionate about right now. What can you do, or are you already doing, to go LOW STRESS this week and next?
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