The holidays seem to make everything worse.
If you are generally annoyed about something your sweetie does or doesn’t do, you might become intensely stressed about that same thing around the holidays. It’s kind of like a full moon that lasts longer. More accidents, more illnesses, more depression. We are all advancing closer to our personal edge, and trying to get one more thing done, one more thing bought, etc. Eventually, somebody breaks down and has a fit, (and it often seems to have something to do with decorating the Christmas tree!) There’s a lot written about de-stressing the holidays, but it’s sort of confusing. It seems that in order to be less stressed, we must now squeeze in an appointment for a massage, make homemade wrapping paper with our children and freeze a month’s worth of homemade soup.
So, how do we de-stress the holidays?
First of all, please understand that sometime during all of this memory-making, your dog will probably get sick and have to go to the vet (It won’t be during office hours, either), your child will come down with something, and your mother will turn into a Christmas banshee. Oh, sorry, I was supposed to be helping you de-stress! The point is, don’t be surprised. Plan for snafus. Give yourself more time to get less done. Not hurrying helps a lot. Plan ahead as much as possible. Spread out your holiday tasks and celebrations. And be willing to cut activities. You absolutely cannot do everything you have on your list. You don’t have to host the Christmas party this year just because you did it last year. And do not add anything extra like painting the bedroom or cleaning out all your closets. Give yourself time to enjoy the unexpected. Thanks for letting me be bossy. You’ll thank me later.