December 1 feels different this year

Today is December 1.  Can you believe it?  Typically with December 1 comes the following thoughts and feelings:

• I HAVE to get my Christmas cards and carefully crafted Christmas letter in the mail TOOOO DAY.
• Oh, shit.  Everyone on facebook seems to have finished their Christmas shopping, guess I should start mine.
• I have 17 days to find pictures, spend 6 hours creating 8 different calendars and making them personalized for all the important elders in our family, order it, receive it, wrap it, and send it on to the appropriate household.
• What crafty craft should I have the kids make for Chris?
• What crappy crap should I buy for everyone's stockings?
• I try hard to decorate with every single Christmas item I own.
• I need time in the kitchen to bake!

This year is different.  It's December 1 and this is what I'm thinking and feeling:

• I wrote my Christmas letter in 10 minutes last night at 11pm, a good hour past my bedtime.  I'm sure it's fascinating and written really well.  Not.  But I don't care.  I almost wrote, "Merry Christmas, check my blog if you're interested in what we're up to."
• We've decalred this to be a SMALL Christmas and the reasoning has nothing to do with money.  It has to do with time and stress.  And it's worked.  I'm nearly finished with my shopping and it was enjoyable to do it all.
• Calendars will get done.  Sometime.
•  I have a great craft that I am stealing from my friend Katrina that is already in the works.
• We are only buying stocking stuff for our own children, no worries in filling all the adults' stockings this year.
• I'm decorating my house with my most favorite Christmas items and leaving the other 40 in the tote in the shed.
• I need time in the kitchen to bake!

I'm normally not a frazzled mess anyway, but I have to admit that December can make me a little crazy.  I forget to breathe it seems.  Lots of activities, busy weekends, Christmas programs, gifts to wrap, goodies to bake and deliver, a house full of people for lots of days, etc.  It's too much for me sometimes.  I've found ways to minimize some of that and am saying "F it" to the rest.  That's the spirit, right?  No, I'm totally in the Christmas mood, I'm just scaling back quite a bit.  I'm taking back the power.  December no longer owns me. 

I will be breathing this December.  Will you??

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