It’s about this time that I get worried that the Christmas season will somehow pass me by and I’ll forget to enjoy it. I’ll think that I’m squandering days and that I really need to focus. Yep, that’s me. Slightly crazy and owning it.
After traveling home from New Orleans on the second busiest flying day of the year (Saturday) and then driving home from the airport in a driving snowstorm, we have also spent the last two days digging out of a Lake Effect winter storm that shifted south into our neck of the woods. On top of that, we are both battling colds, although mine is much less severe than my hubby’s. As a result? The last few days have felt busy and distracted – and not in that special holiday way.
But today? Today, I’m digging in on that holiday feelin’.
First things first, I’ve actually taken time to enjoy my coffee this morning. The past two days, I’ve chugged down hot coffee to get outside and start shoveling. Today? I’m on cup three in my easy chair. Yes, I still have a little shoveling – and laundry – and curtains to make – and vacuuming – and some post-snow removal cleanup. But mostly? Today, I’m shifting my mind into the holidays. In the end, it’s so much less about the physical than it is the mental. I make the mental shift and everything else feels like it’s just part of the season.
So it goes today. I need to run out and do a little Christmas shopping for both my husband and the cats. I also want to take stock of what else needs to be done to finish decorating the house. I have a Christmas jigsaw puzzle going and I may even sneak in a holiday show today. Whatever it takes to get and keep me in that holiday mode, I’ll do.
Here’s why its so important to me: we actually have very few escapes in our worlds. For six years, the combination of health scares, job stresses, kids settling and renovations have taken their toll. Life has become about dealing with the next responsibility and waiting for the other shoe to drop. In truth, that’s to be expected. Welcome to adulthood. But the month of December? Particularly this year, it’s about escapism. For as much as I can, I want the world to slow down, for any busy-ness to be focused on celebrations and seeing family and friends, and for this little family to tuck in, come undone and just be. I actually NEED December to be my escape so I can push through all of the other months of the year. Even better? We get snowed in like we did. Nothing says shut it down like a foot of snow. (Once it’s cleaned off, of course.)
That’s why today is about the mental shift. There is nothing Christmas-like about laundry. Perhaps shoveling has a tiny bit of Christmas in it, but vacuuming doesn’t make the bells ring. Still, if I shift and think about all of these things as preparation for silent nights, sparkling lights and Christmas trees? Well, it makes it more festive. And right now? Festive is what I need.
So today, I start my holiday. I may be four days late but this December is all about staying in the zone. I’ll do my daily list of activities in the mindset that it’s Christmas. Tonight, I’ll do my evening meditation and just let it all wash over me. I’ll play with my sweet kitties, decorate my house a little more, write out some Christmas cards and generally just be festive. Sometimes, that’s all you’ve got.
The Yuppie Homesteader 