Harness the Holidays

Personally, I love the holidays.  I love the energy and the decorations and even hearing the same 30 familiar songs over and over.  I love getting together with family.  I love the holiday outfits, the holiday activities and yep, even the holiday shopping!

You don't have to talk to too many people however to realize that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for this magical time of year.  In fact, most people I talk to say that the holidays are hectic, harried and for those who are truly disenchanted, horrific.

Fear not friends, I'm here to help.  Below are a few ideas on how to put the happy back in your holidays.

1) Own your holiday experience! Close your eyes and picture the holidays as you would like them to be.  Chances are, you'll be thinking about some special memories from holidays past...and likely they won't have anything to do with gifts or amazing holiday recipes.  Choose and write down a few (just a few) things that would make the holidays feel like they 'should'.  Now put yourself in that mind space. Now live there for the next 6 weeks.  Spend time on the things that make you happy...the things that will give you that warm fuzzy feeling you just thought about.  Let the other things go...seriously...I promise you won't miss them.  There is no right or wrong way to celebrate.

2) Take back your holiday calendar.  Go get your calendar...right now...I'll wait.  Okay, now write down all of the commitments you know of at this point through the end of the year.  Look at the month of December...does it have enough white space?  Think about the things that you really want to do...is there time left for them?  Pick days/times and schedule them, even if it is baking cookies with your kids, catching up with a friend for coffee, etc.  If you don't have your own priorities on the calendar, it's easy to push them off (and usually never get to them), when another invitation pops up.

3) Separate Buying from Shopping.  For many people, the gift buying is what spoils their holiday time.  Not that they don't want to give, it's the buying itself (the crowds, the rush, the pressure).  If this is you, do the majority of your shopping online and then make a few special trips to the store for the last few items.  You will enjoy the shopping experience so much more when you aren't rushing from store to store buying in mass.  Take in the people, the sites, the sounds, the smells.  If you aren't enjoying it, go home and order the rest online. 

Happy Holidays!

Worst. Gift. Ever. (or was it?)

I don't remember if it was Mother's Day, or my birthday or some other holiday...I do remember opening the medium sized, not very heavy, uh...creatively wrapped box with great anticipation. 
As the paper ripped, I looked at the side of the box, a bit perplexed.  I could feel my lips starting to purse and stopped them in time to get out a lame, "Wow...okay".  I looked again at the fairly large, twin-sided, hotel-style cereal dispenser.  What on earth was I supposed to do with this?

You see, my husband is not one to ask me what I want and then run to the store to get it.  He knows me pretty well and usually strikes out on his own for gift finding.  While his picks are misses as often as hits, I always appreciate the thought.  I think it is special that even as busy as we are, he puts in an effort to search for something he believes will improve my life or make me happy. 

He could immediately tell it was a miss.  I was trying to hide it (at least a little) because as I said, the thought is always appreciated.  But, I couldn't understand what he was thinking with this one.  I know I'm into organizing, but this just seemed like one more thing to junk up my counter and another thing for the kids to make a mess with.  Worst. Gift. Ever!

We've always had a policy that you don't have to love a gift, and it is okay to return it.  This is necessary if you are going to buy into not getting 'pre-approval' for gift ideas.  Otherwise, there will be a lot of wasted money and hurt feelings.  

For some reason though, I didn't get rid of it.  I stuffed it in a rarely accessed cabinet and other than a few laughs with my friends over the gift choice, forgot about it...until June of last year.

It had been about 3 years since it I had put it in there.  I pulled it out, set the never opened box on the counter and had a little giggle remembering the day I received it.  Suddenly, something hit me.  The kids had kept their morning schedules from school and were waking us up every day at 7am (in the summer).  What if I actually USE this thing and they can get themselves cereal in the morning?  30 extra minutes of sleep?  Every day?

We used it all summer, packed it away for the school year, and pulled it back out this summer (so as not to ruin the novelty for the fickle kids).  It makes them feel like big kids, and gives us some much needed extra snooze minutes.  As I pack it back away now that school is back in session, all I can think to say is...Best. Gift. Ever!!!