Taking a Re-do on December
I can barely remember the month of December last year. What about you? I mean I love Christmas! And I love giving gifts to the people that I cherish the most! However, there are a few problems that seem to arise every holiday season and I am wondering if any of you relate. To start, I am a people person! I love so many people that if I had my way I would be buying thousands of gifts lol. The second dilemma is that my Type A personality wants to get each one of them the perfect gift, something unique to them that they would love. So what happens pretty quickly is that I end up stressed out, overwhelmed and broke instead of merry and joy-filled. All of this because of unrealistic expectations I put on myself.
It seems my people pleasing tendencies go on the rise in December. Eek!! I feel bad turning down any invitation for our family or saying no to volunteering for the extra holiday events at school. I don’t want to forget anyone while sending Christmas cards or buying gifts. I want the house to have that clean, cozy Christmas look I see in the magazines (oh and don’t forget it has to smell like I have a real tree even though I don’t). I want all the parties I throw to be Pintrest approved and even more than that I want them to be “cool” in the eyes of our almost teenager… actually “cool” probably isn’t even the right term. What was that word she used? “Lit”? Yep that’s it! Just double checked on slanguide.com (what, don’t you use that to figure out what teens are saying?) – lit means something or someone amazing or awesome – so yep that’s the goal, lit!
December just started and the calendar is already full. I have barely started shopping!!! Oh gosh, I am getting anxious just telling you about it. There are so many events at the church, the school and with family/friends. Whatever you do, don’t forget about the recorder concert next week. WHAT?!?! Isn’t it enough that we as parents have to deal with our child practicing the recorder? Is a concert really necessary? And of course what better time to have a recorder concert than December?
Okay okay, I think you get my point. This season can have the tendency to be crazy and if we aren’t careful it will fly by and won’t be near as memorable as we were hoping. Don’t you desire more than that? I do! That is why I have decided to do this December differently. I am at a season where my kids are growing quickly and at an age myself where I am settling more into who God created me to be. I recently made the first of many conscious choices to be intentional with this Christmas season.
Being overcommitted stresses my whole family out. So I have decided to be strategic in what I will say “yes” to. Before anyone else fills my calendar with the things that are important to THEM, I took some time to decide what the non-negotiables are for our family and I blocked them off on the calendar. I would have done this all on my own but my good friend Raquel inspired me (and convicted me) on last week’s Brave Women call. She reminded us all to take a few minutes and ask each of our family members what they are most looking forward to this Christmas season so we could be sure to prioritize what is important to them. I’m so glad I did this because there answers were very different than mine!
Since moving across the country in 2015, this is the first time that we will not be going back to the Midwest for Christmas. Knowing this, I am bringing back some old traditions that I let slip away as well as getting creative with some new traditions for our first real Christmas in Phoenix. I am deciding now, at the beginning of December, that this is a memory making month and I am planning them out. I have learned that failing to plan is planning to fail so making time to do it is a must!
The other change I am making is in my gift giving. Sure, I will shop for my kids and get things off their lists. But, I have decided that I want to give some meaningful, can’t be bought in the store, type gifts. The gifts that people really want but, don’t ask for. This excites me!! Over the next three weeks I will be sharing about each of these three gifts on the weekly blog as well as having some friends that inspire me join this conversation on the Brave Women Wednesday call. Hope you will join us!
Praying for you and that this Christmas season is your best one yet! What can you do today or sometime this week to map out your December, so that it doesn't slip away, but it is everything you were hoping for this year?