Ah…the holidays are upon us. Food, family, festivities and well…falling down exhaustion. I do love the family-hanging-out-and-building-memories aspect of the holidays. I love watching my kids get excited and torqued up. I love the eating and the laying around in a post-holiday buzz.
It’s amazing how spending money and planning meals can wear me down. Not wear me out…wear…me…down. To a nub, a pathetic shell of my former self. Not that my former self is something that my pathetic shell should use for comparison.
My former self has been sick for ten days, working like a dog, and has been so crabby and tired, that former self is in no condition to take on The Holidays. Also, I must be Some Kind of Genius because I decided to start Weight Watchers two weeks before Thanksgiving. Nothing like adding a little calorie consumption anxiety to the mix.
Well, irregardless of that, the holidays are here. And, contend with them I must. To shore up my reserves I have been searching for ideas about how to manage and proactively plot a path to decimating holiday stress. I have scoured the internet and I pulled together a list that seemed perfectly...um... reasonable.
1. Plan ahead
2. Don’t over-plan
3. Ask for help
4. Cut yourself slack
5. Meditate
6. Exercise
7. Keep it simple
8. Stay on budget
9. Stock up on red wine
10. Wrap your presents in advance and stick them in plastic containers in the garage
(OK…numbers 9 and 10 are my personal suggestions, you can disregard them if you want…I just wanted to have 10 items on my list)
The list seems reasonable, but I’m not sure how realistic it is (except the wine part). And so, I started looking for some other options. Last week, another option came to me. First it came to me on a plane ride home from a work trip. Then, it came to me again while I was sitting watching Ava at gymnastics.
Knitting.
Knitting is calming…its repetitive, mindless, and leaves you with a sense of accomplishment. The women I watched at gymnastics and on the plane seemed so content, so calm.
There is only one problem. I can’t knit. And…I don’t have the time or patience to learn to knit before Thursday.
So, I wracked my brain trying to think of something analogous to knitting that might help get me through the next six weeks. Something repetitive. Something mindless. Something with a sense of accomplishment…Picking up after my kids.
And just think…no one has to teach me how to do it.
