Well, after hosting our friends as guest bloggers for most of November I am back. I hope every one had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It was great to have some time off to spend with family and friends!
I had already planned this blog topic before I read Kathy's blog on Wednesday, but the topics seem to have been designed together. In the words of Boss Hogg, "I love it when a plan comes together!"
As I mentioned already, I enjoyed spending time this past weekend with family and friends but those fun times can also be very stressful. Already my calendar is filling up with committments during the month of December. For many of them I will need to shop for a present to take and make a dish of food to share. Of course, the parties will be a lot of fun and it will be wonderful to see everyone during the holidays but even good fun things can add stress to our lives. I love to bake and decorate my home but today I find myself twitching at the thought of needing to get my greenery up this weekend while it is still green. So even though I enjoy both the process and then end results of decorating, I am struggling a bit with actually getting it done. Of course, it is early days yet but I just know that the closer I get to Christmas the busier life will become.
One way that I have coped with holiday stress the last few years is to take a day off during December. My church has a ladies luncheon on a Monday early in December and I have taken the day off to go and enjoy that. I began this personal holiday tradition one year when I needed to assist with the luncheon but it was so nice to have a day off that I continued to take off to just attend the luncheon. It is nice to be able to sleep in a little and know that I have a day to put a little bit more merry into my Christmas.
What are some ways you cope with holiday stress?
