Christmas is a big theme in our house right now. We got the tree up (though not decorated) last night and I put the outdoor lights around the balcony this evening.
We took some time out to go visit my parents this afternoon. We hadn’t seen them since before we went to Vegas and transfer piles from our house to theirs were getting bigger by the day. We had some gifts to share and some other things to take over, not to mention that we enjoy spending time with them as well.
As we sat watching football and catching up, topic turned to Christmas and I gave my dad a jab about the fact that there weren’t any Christmas lights up at their place yet. (Its a thing we do.) He scoffed saying, “it isn’t even December yet!” As much as I know he’s right, today starts the one month countdown to Christmas Day and this year I am keenly aware of how little time that actually is.
As I laid it out to him:
- There are 30 days until Christmas,
- Of those 30 days, I am expecting to work 18 of them,
- Of the remaining 12 days, I will be out of town for 4 of them,
- That leaves me just 8 days that are not mostly, if not entirely spoken for – only eight days to prepare for and truly celebrate the holidays in a way that is entirely of my choosing,
- Eight days is not a lot of time.
Eight days isn’t a lot of time under any circumstances, but when you subtract all the Christmas related tasks – the cooking, the baking, the entertaining, the decorating, the shopping, the wrapping, the socializing, the card writing, the visiting, all the best parts of the holidays – the next thirty days is going to be a whirlwind for all of us. I’m just trying to make the most of all my time and enjoy the season with as little complication and stress as possible. If I had more time, things might be different, but there’s nothing like feeling under the gun to turn something that should be enjoyable into total drudgery.
So, no, I’m not going to apologize for putting my lights up in November, thankyouverymuch.
What are your tricks to making the most of your time leading up to the holidays? How do you maximize your time in the weeks before Christmas?
