Ahhhhhh… Fall is here. The holidays are officially upon us.
WHAT? Seriously, I remember the beginning of this year like it was last weekend. This is nuts!
In all honesty, I LOVE Fall. The changing of the leaves, cool weather, pumpkins, pumpkin pie, food… okay now I’m hungry. Fall is like a rebirth for our souls. It literally makes us feel like we’re starting over. It can also feel like the most stressful time of the year.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa – whatever you celebrate – should be a time of giving thanks for abundance and life and love. Instead, many people choose to run through malls mowing over others to get the best deal. I feel like I’ve lost my girl card, I do not like the mall. My kind of stress is over WHEN I should start my Christmas shopping for my family and friends and then procrastinate until everything needs to be shipped with shipping charges over $50 to get packages there before December 25th!
So, this year I did my research and came up with a blueprint to get through the holidays by eliminating *most* of the stress that pops up on November 1st.
In everything, give thanks to God. Since God comes first, this is where we start. Give thanks daily. Not just during the holidays, but because God is great and blesses us with everything we need in life. So incorporate prayers for a smooth holiday season into your daily prayer cycle and this will ease you into Fall and everything it has to offer.
Get your holiday card list together early in the year. This way when additional contacts pop up later in the year, it’s easier to just add them to your existing list. If you have a business, come up with your card and calendar ideas in the Summertime so that you can have everything printed by November 1st. What this does is eliminate the anxiety that pops up when you realize you have to shop for and cook Thanksgiving dinner and about a thousand of life surprises creep into all of your well-laid plans.
Find out what your tribe wants so that you can organize the gift list early. This eliminates the $50+ on shipping because you waited to find all of this out and then delay actually sending it. This also gives you time to get the best price by researching when the best deal will be offered and accumulating coupons.
Get into office mode. Make lists and charts. Sound nuts? It’s exactly what will keep your sanity. I’m the type of person that has to write everything down. I’m a visual learner. A ‘do it to know it’ type. So I have lists and charts… and they work.
Remember to sip on hot cocoa at the end of each day, or tea, or water, maybe grab a heating pad, and relax because you deserve it. You’ve planned everything so well that you can rest easy knowing that it’ll all be taken care of in perfect timing.
For those of you with a large family, thinking right about now – yeah this isn’t going to happen – it CAN happen. So maybe instead of starting your holiday planning during the Summertime, start during Spring. It does sound bizarre, but November and December creep up on us and then it’s scramble time to the finish and that’s not what the season is about.
So in summary, give thanks to God and plan ahead. Create holiday card lists early in the year. Lists and charts of cards and gift ideas will help eliminate stress that comes with procrastination. Then relax at the end of each day knowing that you have everything under control. Decompress with a heating pad and some cocoa.
Have a Happy ChristmaHannuKwanzaa! Be well and safe my family & friends.
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