Only nine days until Christmas! It is hard to
believe. This time of year is my very favorite, yet it seems to fly by so
quickly each year that I barely am able to appreciate and take in the Christmas
spirit. I am beginning to realize that the only way to take control of
appreciating the holidays is to make a conscious decision to not allow oneself to
get sucked into the hustle and bustle and chaos going on throughout the holiday
month: First there is the anxiety of trying to find everyone the perfect
gift, then there is the stress of researching online to find those gifts that can be delivered on time. Not to mention the frustration of finding a parking stall at
the mall only to stand in endless lines amongst all of the other frustrated
shoppers. It sounds sad to say that it takes a conscious effort to
slow yourself down at Christmas, but the fact is that it does. And so
this year I am determined to try and handle the holiday season
differently. And so I have come up with a plan:
I plan to finish my shopping up quickly and without stressing
over finding the perfect gift. Instead I am going to put less stress on
what the gift is and more emphasis and making sure the person I give the gift
to is able to feel how much I care.
I plan to spend some time quietly contemplating the many
blessings in my life so I don’t ever take any of those blessings for
granted. I think this time of year is a fantastic time to sit and write
down each of the blessings we have in our lives as a keepsake to look back on
in future years. I plan to start early thinking of service projects my faith in
God class can do for others for Christmas so our hearts and minds are more
focused on the true meaning of Christmas from the start of the month.
And for icing on the holiday spirit cake I plan to listen to
plenty of Christmas carols, I took our Christmas cd box that is full of beautiful
music and have been listening to them every day. I also love Christmas movies: “Mr.
Krueger’s Christmas” starring Jimmy Stewart and if you haven’t seen it you
absolutely need to! It is the best movie ever to get you in the right
Christmas spirit).
Yes, this month I intend to truly enjoy and cherish the
Christmas season – and I realize that it is my attitude and my focus that will
make that happen.
It is especially important for me to remember that I
control my attitude and focus – especially when this will be my very first Christmas
with Daniel’s family in Uruguay. We will have to call in or skype our kids and
grandkids on Christmas day and I am so looking forward to that. Last year my
girls were in town and it was perfect! It is amazing how powerful the
desire is to be with family during the holidays and it makes my heart go out to
all of those people who don’t get to be around their family or loved ones
during the holiday. And so to deal with the hole in my heart I will focus
my attention on doing service for others for others. I have found that
doing service for others is about the very best cure there is for loneliness.
And there is no better time than Christmas to go the extra mile in doing
service for others. I hope all of us are able to set aside the typical
stresses and anxieties that so often plague us this time of year and focus on
the things that really matter. Our family!
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