It finally hit me today. The holiday spirit, that is. And it’s about time. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE the holidays. Any and every holiday. And I always go all out with decorations and other celebrations, specifically for the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year’s holidays. I just love the feelings of cheer and joy and kindness that come along with the holidays, yet so often escape us the other 11 months of the year. I love the magic that the holidays bring.
But this year, I have been so caught up in everything else going on that I just haven’t had time to think about all of it, let alone actually do any planning. Between the four jobs I currently have (my normal 9-5, a freelance writing gig, graduate school, and blogging/health activism) and all of the other roles I take on every day (i.e. wife, daughter, friend, homeowner) I haven’t been able to fit in “holiday enthusiast” or “Christmas gift buyer.” I usually prefer to be basically done with my shopping and planning much before now, but this year I haven’t even started. I have a few ideas in the back of my head of what I’d like to get for people, but I have not even sat down and gone through my list and figured out where to start.
Regardless of all of that, today I finally go excited to move into the holidays. Surprisingly, as we move into the crazy holiday time, my husband and my schedule is actually calming down a bit. We have been out-of-town and booked up every weekend for the past forever, so I think we’re finally being able to catch our breath.
This week, I’m looking forward to spending time with both of my families. Thanksgiving can get a little crazy with all of the food preps and simply with the number of people who are in attendance, but at the same time, there’s not much that needs to be done outside of some cooking and just enjoying the company of some of the other people you don’t always get to see.
Since I’m a little late to the holiday game this year, I have got to get myself in gear and push forward in the next few weeks. I have to get the gift list under control and make my husband drag all of our decorations out of the attic. I like to try some different decorating idea each year, but this time around we might just have to settle for something a little more simple, which is alright with me. I will also likely have to be OK with doing more of my shopping online than I usually do. I prefer to see things in person and to be able to touch them before purchasing, but I think I can get past that.
One thing that is very exciting is that I will be putting on the first ever Stolen Colon Giveaway!! I am really looking forward to this and have put a lot of thought into it (so there’s where all of my planning time went), so keep an eye out next week for the first opportunity to win some goodies!
I know that the holidays have a tendency to stress you out (or at least me, anyways) and keep you busy and make you want to buy more and more, but this week especially, be sure to take the time to remember all of the good things in your life and all of the people you get to celebrate them with. I’m going to try to save all of the craziness for another day and let the holiday spirit do its magic.