…can't seem to get into the Christmas Spirit or mind frame. I'm exhausted, and all it really means to me is more work, and more to do, and more crazy people to deal with while I'm doing it. Suggestions????
Take a breath or two and step back for a while. Then make a list of what needs done, and pencil in on the calendar what can be done when. Leave the last week before Christmas blank for family time and overflow, and baking cookies and fun family time. Consider breaking your Christmas vacation days into to segments. Take a couple or a few now so you and the kids can get shopping and wrapping and mailing and decorating out of the way. Then do school for a week then take the last few days before Christmas off again. For me knowing that I will have a few days to chill out with the kids and my DH after the presents are mailed out makes the hustle more bearable.
Thanks, I have let go of the "non-essentials" for the next two weeks - which for us is pretty much our History and the stuff that wraps around that. So, I'm letting them kind of relax. It's almost not school. And it's not really Christmas prep. I have an amazing husband who really helps this time of year. He does ALL the Christmas shopping for the kids main presents. We only exchange with my parents. And we do pollyannas with all my siblings and their kids, so we have very few gifts to buy. I stuff the stockings….and except for my middle, those are done. It's weird. I've never felt this way before. I LOVE Christmas. I LOVE Christmas music. I'm the one who does all the baking, and lighting, I'm the one who's clamoring to start Christmas music, Christmas movies. And I just don't feel like it at all this year. I am faking it for the kids' sake LOL I am playing the music. I am watching the movies with them. I am getting ready to start baking. Just feels like a chore this year, and I don't even know why. Well, EVERYTHING feels like a chore, all the time. Alright, pity party over, things to do. Sorry, maybe I'm just griping. I am VERY grateful for everything…God is VERY good to us. Better than we deserve most days. I have no reason at all to feel this way.
Has is been rainier than usual, cloudier? Perhaps you are just down, or have seasonal depression from a lack of sunshine and need some vitamin D. I used to get this when I lived in Eastern TN. It would sock in with lowsy weather for weeks at a time. When the sun was out, (rarely it seemed), I would open the window and lay in the sun on the floor of what ever room has sun coming in, on a towel. LOL, It was like laying out at the beach but inside the house.
I'm the same way. I have "Seasonal Depression" if you will. I get super down and upset during the poopy winter months with little sunshine. I 2nd taking the vitamin D. It really does help. Family drama from DH's side of the family had me down as well, but we have that taken care of this year. I just told DH that our children and myself weren't going t their Christmas because his Mom can't respect either one of us. This Christmas is going to be much better! I will be praying for your spirits to lift!
Thanks. I do believe it is related to seasonal affect disorder (SAD….still makes me laugh!). It's been very gray here! I went to a Mom's Christmas Crafting night and made some fun decorative luminaries with friends yesterday, and it snowed. Bought all the ingredients for baking today, hoping that starting to make the doughs makes me feel more festive. My oldest really wants to help this year, so maybe if I play Christmas music and giggle with her, it will make it more Christmasy. Right now, I'm pressing through….
This is such a difficult season for so many people and for so many reasons. I will openly admit that in the past it had been a very difficult time for me because the pressure was on to get everything on "the list" but at some point it changed. I thought this year would be painful for me but it has been surprisingly calm. Enlist the help of friends with baking if that's a problem. Instead of baking 15 different things, maybe you can do an exchange with them.... you bake a little extra of 2 items (as an example) and your friends do as well and you share it giving everyone a variety to share/enjoy. Try not to sweat he small stuff, everything will come together but most of all focus on the Reason for the season. Merry Christmas :love:
Kids and I decorated cut-out cookies today, and had friends over - my oldest taught a Sculpey Clay Nativity Class to some friends who were supposed to come over the summer, but ended up not being able to come that day. My son had a friend over, too, and they played in the snow. Listening to my kids have a blast decorating the cookies, having fun with their friends, and music playing in the background worked for a while. That was nice.
