You and me both, sister. Simple, simple simple. At your children’s ages, they will be delighted and enchanted no matter how simple it is. Enjoy, relax, and again, enjoy!
Honestly, most of my stress at Christmas comes from coping with the week long visit to the inlaws that occurs either over Christmas or New Year’s. A six hour drive, a week spent in a too small house, and a six hour drive back make for enough stress to make anyone nuts.
Planning that kind of trip is enough stress for anytime of year, but add it on to all the sundry things going on now and it just becomes overwhelming.
It’s always easier to visit over New Years because it gives me the first part of vacation to do all the travel prep of laundry, packing, cleaning, etc. But then we’ll get home (@ ~9 pmish) and have to go right back to work the next day, so that is it’s own ball of stress.
I think you are so wise to do what is doable for you. The family would rather have a non stressed mum than the movie Christmas which, if you can do it is good, is not really the main thing.
A relative used to do the whole thing and it was wonderful visiting the house and seeing the decorations and banquet but she was cranky and tired and so busy that we didn’t see her which was, for me, the main reason for the visit.
This is off topic, but I had to laugh at your twitter post talking about your KA mixer flying off the counter while you were tending a “creaming” baby, lol – butter, sugar, and… Ben, all “creaming” in the mixer
As for Christmas, low-key is good for us, too – this will be the first year that we actually have a tree!
I’m totally with you on this one. My parents kept Christmas simple and modest for me (we also didn’t have a lot of money, so we couldn’t have a lavish Christmas even if we wanted to!) and I’m so appalled by the over-the-top commercialism. I don’t have kids, so I don’t get drawn into it too much, but I do have friends and family members that I give to. This year, however, I’m starting to examine it more closely and cut back. It’s just so insane, the rushing around, the crowds, the traffic. JESUS is the reason for the season, but that seems to be forgotten most of the time. I’m a church musician, so this time of year is busy with rehearsals and whatnot. I still don’t have any decorations up. I want to, but I don’t have the energy to drag everything down from the attic. I’m hoping I’ll summon up the energy this weekend. I try to think of it as readying my humble home for a very important guest, which is the truth.
Giulietta, I missed that typo… too funny!
You and me both, sister. Simple, simple simple. At your children’s ages, they will be delighted and enchanted no matter how simple it is. Enjoy, relax, and again, enjoy!
Honestly, most of my stress at Christmas comes from coping with the week long visit to the inlaws that occurs either over Christmas or New Year’s. A six hour drive, a week spent in a too small house, and a six hour drive back make for enough stress to make anyone nuts.
Planning that kind of trip is enough stress for anytime of year, but add it on to all the sundry things going on now and it just becomes overwhelming.
It’s always easier to visit over New Years because it gives me the first part of vacation to do all the travel prep of laundry, packing, cleaning, etc. But then we’ll get home (@ ~9 pmish) and have to go right back to work the next day, so that is it’s own ball of stress.
I think you are so wise to do what is doable for you. The family would rather have a non stressed mum than the movie Christmas which, if you can do it is good, is not really the main thing.
A relative used to do the whole thing and it was wonderful visiting the house and seeing the decorations and banquet but she was cranky and tired and so busy that we didn’t see her which was, for me, the main reason for the visit.
This is off topic, but I had to laugh at your twitter post talking about your KA mixer flying off the counter while you were tending a “creaming” baby, lol – butter, sugar, and… Ben, all “creaming” in the mixer
As for Christmas, low-key is good for us, too – this will be the first year that we actually have a tree!
I’m totally with you on this one. My parents kept Christmas simple and modest for me (we also didn’t have a lot of money, so we couldn’t have a lavish Christmas even if we wanted to!) and I’m so appalled by the over-the-top commercialism. I don’t have kids, so I don’t get drawn into it too much, but I do have friends and family members that I give to. This year, however, I’m starting to examine it more closely and cut back. It’s just so insane, the rushing around, the crowds, the traffic. JESUS is the reason for the season, but that seems to be forgotten most of the time. I’m a church musician, so this time of year is busy with rehearsals and whatnot. I still don’t have any decorations up. I want to, but I don’t have the energy to drag everything down from the attic. I’m hoping I’ll summon up the energy this weekend. I try to think of it as readying my humble home for a very important guest, which is the truth.