Day 295
There are five days left of November … 26,27,28,29, 30.
My house is decorated (sans the tree). All the autumnal decorations and empty holiday bins have been put away. The leftovers have been eaten. The house has been washed and waxed and dusted and polished – it is sparkling and gleaming.
This is unheard of.
I mean … really. I don’t know if this has ever happened before in the history of (my) homemaking! I don’t know what to do … well, I do … but all of a sudden I have … TIME!
That thing that NO ONE has during the holiday season. It’s uncanny. It’s weird. It’s so foreign I’m afraid I might squander it … elusive, precious TIME!
Thanksgiving fell early this year giving us an extra week between it and Christmas. If I were more musical I’d sing the Hallelujah chorus right now!
The rush is on … but I don’t feel rushed. I am oddly tranquil … calm … serene … at peace. Like I said, this is really weird!
But I like it! I could get used to this!
Every year for the last zillion I’ve had a holiday party … which meant figure out the date a month prior, send out invites, clean the house after TG (which I usually hosted and had out of town family at my house), take down autumn and put up Christmas decks, make/get food for party, have party, clean up from party.
Collapse should have been the next thing on my list to do – but I didn’t have the time. I was already behind!
The rest of the season I was running to catch up … do the shopping, wrapping, sending out of town gifts, holiday letters and mailings, etcetcetc … and so on.
Makes me exhausted now just thinking about it.
This year things are already different. It’s a breath of (brisk) fresh air! I’m enjoying the holiday movies that I’ve been watching (way too much of) … laughing at (or crying at) holiday commercials … figuring out if gingerbread cookies count as a high fiber breakfast.
The key words in that last sentence were … enjoying and breath (no not fiber!). And it’s not that I didn’t enjoy those times of the past … I did. I just don’t think I took time to breathe. Every chore or event or to-do flowed into the next and there was no time to step back and sip that cocoa … or take a nap by the crackling fire.
This year I intend to (and will) do that. Although a nap by the crackling fire might have to be sourced by a candle!
But that’s okay. I am slowing things down. I’m going into Santa Sloth-Mode.
I’m going to get my cards done – leisurely. I will wrap when I please and not in some holiday frenzy leaving me fit for a padded cell. I will hum Christmas carols in the shower and in the car without thinking that I want to kill off every chipmunk on the planet.
Okay, maybe that will still be the case … because, face it, chipmunks were NOT meant to sing.
In any case … the holiday season is upon us and I am going to enjoy this one as much as I can.
And if the Mayans are correct in their prophecy about the 21st and my holiday season gets cut short … well, all I can say it … I’m going to be royally pissed.