Only 18 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 ENJOYING 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 for the lowest price, 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 sitting by our Christmas tree, sipping hot cocoa, and
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 family 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 on the radio and watch countless Hallmark channel cheesy
Christmas movies with my hubby– that always helps to keep me in that
Christmas spirit :). (By the way my very favorite movie is “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. This year will be going to Uruguay to spend Christmas with Daniel's family. 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. The Church came out with an amazing campaign so I hope to do some kind of kindness each day this month and continue through out the new year.
I have
found that doing service for others is about the very best cure there is for a
sad heart. And there is no better time than Christmas to go the extra
mile in doing service for others. I wish all of you an amazing holiday
month. 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. Go to Mormon.org and find more about light of the world.
Con amor,
Vero
No comments:
Post a Comment