Welcome to Day Four of our Christmas Prep Week! (read more about all the details here)
We’ve spent the week gathering, planning and if we’re honest you may feel like anxiety is mounting. That’s ok because it’s telling us something. If you feel like you’re already out of time and it’s still only October, you have too much on your plate.
Grab those lists and edit.
It’s ok to say no to certain things.
It’s ok to outsource in the areas you’re overwhelmed in (schedule a house cleaning and call it a gift to yourself or sign up for a meal delivery service for a week or two)
It’s ok to say enough is enough.
Define your non-negotiable. Take a look at those lists and ask yourself what will you regret most if you missed it. That looks different for all of us so consider carefully. No one can do it all, so decide what you want to do MOST and go from there.
This is about making the tough decisions now so that you are free to enjoy the rest later. I promise it’s worth it!
On the flip side, the last few years have been crazy. You may not have much on you list. If that’s how you want to spend the holidays that is great but if you find yourself longing for community or seeing family you haven’t in too long, now is the time to do something about it. Do you host a little dinner or plan an outing? Do you need to say “yes” to that event you would usually turn down? Do what is best for you and your people but don’t let this season go by feeling like you’re missing out on your people.
BONUS TIP: We celebrate Christmas with my BFF and our families after the holidays. She is one of the most important people in my whole world but we both have lots of family commitment during the holidays so waiting until later actually allows us to thoroughly enjoy our time and not stress. It’s been flexible due to the craziness of the last few years but we’ve had “Groundhog Christmas,” around Groundhog Day and even “Spring Bookmas,” where we wait until Spring and gift books for the kids. Did we edit out something really importance for the season? Yep but in doing so we give it more importance and it becomes something we can truly savor… not to mention the help with the budget and time to spread it all out. (Our kids all have late summer/early fall birthdays so that helps too)
So, you may be an “all the parties!” person, or a homebody who just wants to bake cookies, or anything in between. Every person and family is different and our priorities will reflect that but taking the time to edit (meaning cut or add!) your list and you’ll allow yourself to enjoy the season more than ever.