Do you have those days where you are in the car, on a route you’ve driven a million times only to snap out of a trance and scratch your head wondering where you’ve been the last several minutes? Autopilot – is it our brain multitasking or telling us to slow down?
I don’t know about you, but the month of December moves at an insane pace for my family. All too familiarly, I feel that same sense of autopilot take hold in my life now and then. When my mind starts reeling with how to fit everything in to an already full calendar, I get grumpy and frustrated. I want to recreate the childhood I had for my kids, baking cookies, driving around looking at Christmas lights, all the typical holiday activities. It’s easy to just shift into autopilot to get through, but it’s not much fun. Grumpy and frustrated isn’t my idea of a great holiday.
I’m taking a different approach this year. So what if we don’t get around to baking homemade sugar cookies, the premade dough is just as much fun to decorate. So what that we had our Christmas tree for two and a half weeks before we were able to decorate it; it’s up and just as beautiful. This is a big departure from my normal “Grinch-like” holiday persona. A Norman Rockwell Christmas is a lovely idea, but not terribly achievable.
Why stress ourselves out trying to achieve an idea?
My house is a wreck, the only cookies we have enjoyed are the Girl Scout variety (I have Girl Scouts who would love to sell you cookies – just email me), and I haven’t even thought about Christmas cards yet. No autopilot for me, I’m trying to savor every minute of my kids at Christmastime. They will never be this young again, why am I rushing through it – no! I’m enjoying it this year.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – don’t forget to enjoy it! And if you normally get a Christmas card from me – it’s coming – eventually. I’m busy making memories with my family.
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