Did anyone else think oh s**t when they noticed the calendar switch to November? I feel like it was summer, I blinked, and now we are preparing for the Holiday’s.
While the Holiday’s are meant to be a joyful time to celebrate with family and friends, it can also be a very stressful time of year. In fact, I dreaded the Holiday’s growing up..it was my least favorite time of year. Some compared me to Scrooge and I was totally cool with that.
Once I started dating my now-husband and realized the Holiday’s could be relaxed and not one ball of stress, things changed. Believe it or not, I now look forward to Thanksgiving every year.
Here are just a few tips that have helped me start to enjoy the Holiday season.
Plan
Yes, Thanksgiving is almost four weeks away but the time is now to get a plan in place. Are you hosting, going as a guest with a dish, ordering Chinese, etc??? No matter what your agenda is for the day, start to get a plan of action in place now. Get your pad and paper out and write down the plan. You can even use the old school rule of thumb: who, what, where, why, and how to organize your thoughts.
Prepare
This to me is the critical piece. Do a small activity each day leading up to Thanksgiving. If you are the host, this may be to dust one day, vacuum another, get list of groceries, shop, etc...
Looking back at my Thanksgiving’s growing up, nothing was done until the actual day of. My day started with my parents waking everyone up early to start cleaning. We would be cleaning around the mess that was in the kitchen as my Mom feverishly cooked every item. Generally, the guests were supposed to arrive around 3 and our house was still a wreck, no one had yet showered, and everyone was yelling at each other. Can you see why I disliked the holidays? When I first had Thanksgiving at my sister in laws’, she had prepped everything before the big day and just had to cook a few small items that needed to be made the day of. We would all gather in the kitchen to help her, relax on the couch, and had such a great day enjoying time as a family. It was a completely different world.
Outsource
If you are going to be stressed out trying to make the perfect mashed potatoes just like Mamaw did, then slow your roll. The perfect mashed potatoes are not the reason for Thanksgiving, it is more about being with family and friends. So go buy those mashed potatoes and save yourself a headache. The same can be true any other to do on your list that is going to cause stress.
Schedule Time For You
My day always gets off on a great start if I make time to either read for 30 minutes or take a 30 minute walk. The Holiday’s can be long and exhausting so getting your mind right is just as critical as making the pumpkin pie. My favorite memories from Thanksgiving are not eating so much I couldn’t breathe, but getting to spend time with my nieces and nephews playing outside or going for a walk.
Be Grateful
Yeah , yeah I know...I sound like a cheese bomb. However, as I get older I begin to realize more and more how grateful I am for my family and friends. To have a day to celebrate with the ones I love is priceless. It isn’t about Turkey being cooked precisely right or having the perfect table setting. Keep that in mind if you start to get stressed along the way.
If things start to get chaotic along the way, just remember to breathe and take it one step at a time. Hope these tips help you this holiday season.
What are your favorite ways to not stress during the holidays?