I don’t enjoy Xmas. I really don’t. It saddens me because it was such an important time of year for me years ago. During my single days, pre-children, when there were only 3 people in the world I had to think about for gifts. And nothing else to do but decorate a tiny apartment and only one place to go on Xmas day.
But honestly, I am not at all interested in going back to those times because even though the holidays were lovely and stress-free…I really wasn’t happy in general with my life. I suppose that’s why Xmas was such a special time for me back then. Because I had an external reason to be happy for one month a year that just filled me up completely during that month. The rest of the year it was much more of a struggle to feel that kind of happiness.
So Xmas is a small price to pay for the joy I feel the rest of the year for the blessings of my much fuller life now. I just have to remind myself of this. Regularly.
So right now, while I’m thinking about this, I’m writing this down so that I can reread it regularly this month and remind myself that Xmas doesn’t have to be dreaded. My children adore it…what child doesn’t? And I need to work at making it special for THEM. I don’t have to go nuts and fill every day with special things…but just spending special focused time would be enough for them. Even though I homeschool…I find it hard to focus on one-on-one special time with my kiddos. Because there’s SO much to worry about at any given moment of every single day. So many things I need to be teaching them or exposing them to. So much work to be done on the house, so many struggles to get them to help out. Its friggin exhausting!!
But lately I’ve been really thinking that this is ridiculous. I spend every day…most days every minute of every day, WITH my kids…I need to figure out a better way to BE with them!! It’s ok for them to have their own things to do…and they should…but I need to find better ways to bring us together for special 1-on-1 and 1-to-2 (both kids) time. I know they’d appreciate it. So THAT is what I need to be working on with them. NOT working on whatever to-do list I have for the day. I need to do that as well, but I need to also devote time to put it aside and just do something special to show them how much they mean to me, and build those special childhood memories that I so very much want for them.
And this time of the year is the perfect time to try something like this out! So, now I’m going to go get my day started and see what I can do to schedule time into our days to doing special things to just BE with each other…not just getting stuff “done”.
So today I’m going to start with getting all the Xmas stuff out and start working on Xmas-i-fying the house. I know they will like that, and I need to work on not being such a grinch. I’ll put on the Xmas music and put up the colorful lights, and that will help. And I’ll not worry about allllll the stuff I have to do, because the most important thing I need to be doing is just spending special time with my children. Turn off the tv, turn off the computer, and just BE. And maybe we’ll even get some cookie dough and make something sweet. 🙂
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