The holidays are upon us. Yesterday was Halloween, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Okay, not really but it does seem like time is moving that quickly. There is so much to do, so many people to see, so many gifts to buy, so many cookies to eat, so much money to spend. The older these kids get, the more expensive the presents become!
With the holidays comes stress. Lots of it. We do it to ourselves. We have to find that one perfect gift or find that one perfect Christmas outfit for the Holiday program. We make things so much harder than it has to be. And by we - I really mean me. But I'm sure I'm not the only one.
When I picture Christmas, it's your typical Norman Rockwell calendar picture for the month of December. Cute little kids are hugging in front of fire with warm mugs of hot cocoa. The husband and wife are looking on with their arms around each other. They are probably kissing under a mistletoe and there is a beautiful dinner spread out behind them that their private chef cooked. I'm 50 lbs. thinner and have hair like Christina Applegate. My kids aren't fighting over the remote and my husband isn't complaining about the 5 Christmas trees I've set up. The maid is in the background just waiting to clean up after us. Oh and there is a new Cadillac DTS I can spot out the window (because I'm always thinking of my husband and his wants and needs.) My house is spotless and has a basement. Yes, in my dreams, I have a basement.
But as we all know, it's not like that at all. I think the build up to Christmas is just that...a build up...only to be let down. The real picture is something like this: the kids are fighting over who's turn it is to watch a show because apparently the 17 hours of TV they've already watched that day isn't enough, they are screaming at each other and I'm screaming over them. Dad walks in and talks to them nicely and takes the remote and they both run crying to their room because my screaming does nothing but Dad talking is LAW, the dog is licking herself in front of the fire/corn burner that doesn't even work, frozen pizza is on the counter and no one is cleaning up but me. The only thing I see out the window is dog poop and a junky van that has 150,000 miles on it and there is no mistle toe anywhere in sight because I'm sure that by bedtime I will have a headache. And I have no basement.
Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday because it's stress free. You make a meal, eat it, be thankful, watch football with a full belly and it's over. What's not to like about that? But Christmas....plans have to be made in October just to coordinate everyone's schedules, gift lists have to be made so there are no duplicates, money has to be saved to buy said gifts, menus need to be planned so there aren't 4 green bean casseroles and no desserts. Why do we do this to ourselves? Because it's expected. If we don't get all the gifts on the lists, how do we get our kids to behave the months of November and December? I've already used the Santa threat 617 times and it's only November 17th.
So this year I decided to have less stress. I've shopped mostly online. The kids aren't getting nearly as much. We've raised money and are "giving back" by adopting kids on the angel tree. I'm baking early and sticking it all in the freezer so it's ready. I'm doing some small projects here and there and so far, it's going well. I'm still debating how many trees to put up. We have a small house but I usually have 5 trees up. The husband does not like this. It's hard to be "scroogey" when Christmas has puked all over your house. I think all the twinkling lights distract from his stupid TV shows. I guess it's hard to watch things like "The Fall of Hitler" with Santa staring at you. Since I can't threaten him with Santa, he gets away with a little more than the kids.
This year since I am keeping it low stress, I'm even allowing my husband to be in control of my son's big gift. It's a project he has to build and I'm a nervous wreck over it. My husband is very handy and I know it will turn out great (and be ready by Dec. 23rd - hint, hint honey....that's your deadline). But I've never let him have this much control over a gift. The fact that I can't just go buy it and know that it's here and ready is really stressing me out. And the fact that he keeps showing me plans and I'm picturing something totally different than what he has drawn also stresses me out. He was asking me questions about it and I had no idea what he was talking about and he asked me if I had a stroke because I was being so stupid - not a good sign about the outcome of this project. I think we have it all worked out now but this part was supposed to lower my stress not make more. Deep breaths control freak. Deep breaths.
I know in the long run it will all be worth it. All the hours of shopping, wrapping, baking, it will all be worth it. Even though it will all be over on Christmas morning in about 11 minutes it will all be worth it. If I keep telling myself that, think it will come true? I think my chances of waking up with a basement are more likely.
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