Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Stressless Holiday Preparations

Being a Baha'i, Christmas decorations and baking and gift-giving have new meanings for me.  Gone are the "must do" lists.  They have become (as they should have been all along) only those things that I really want to do.  I no longer feel the pressure to do things perfectly, and I definitely don't have to do EVERYTHING.

Today I'm just enjoying the simple pleasures of receiving Christmas cards in the mail (especially because this year I got mine comfortably mailed out early in December), making homemade gifts for the neighbors, making sure the postlady and sanitation engineers received their gifts, making holiday dinner plans with friends, finding the perfect little stocking stuffers for family members, and honestly - thoroughly enjoying the Christmas lights and decorations that my neighbors have put up (one thing that we don't do) as I drive home through my neighborhood.  Somehow I'm really seeing them this year, and appreciating them completely.

I also made the final menu decisions for Christmas breakfast and dinner and the shopping lists are written.  Without the pressure of "having" to do it all, I'm enjoying each step, each tradition, that I am doing.  That's what it should have been all along.  So why did I put all that extra stress on myself before?  Not really sure, but I definitely love this "attitude adjustment"!!

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