It’s Holiday crunch time.  Sure, the week before Christmas has lots of running around too, but there are many deadlines this week.  Getting things ordered to be delivered in time without paying for overnight, shipping things off to family.  I’m in a whirlwind of cookie baking and online shopping and secret santa activities right now.

I hope to post at least one reverb post today, but I gotta go place some orders and do some planning first!

In the meantime, two things I came across that caught my attention today and I wanted to share:

Tiny Buddha’s post about productivity and happiness – as I struggle to not be stressed out about lack of productivity for the holidays, this really is year round advice.

Similarly, the 5 most common regrets at the end of one’s life is another great reminder.

I was a ball of stress yesterday (helllo mercury retrograde! thanks for frakking things up!) and had my mini-meltdown over it.  I tried “leaning into it” but didn’t really know what the hell that means 😛 but I admitted defeat on getting one gift (for multiple family members) done on time – they’ll get an IOU and it will be here in January.  I had hoped to surprise Random on Yule with the gift we planned to get ourselves after Christmas, but it’s sold out or overpriced so I had to admit it to him, and tell him to keep an eye out for it as well.

I also came out of the secret santa closet for something that I had been doing anonymously for a friend’s kid.  In order to relieve the stress of that task, I had to know that it would be appreciated and get some input on it – and who knew, maybe someone else was doing the same thing all these years and I could step back.  As it turns out, it is something that is appreciated, and the recipient is just getting old enough to understand it.  Armed with more information, I still rushed and had to pay extra to send it overnight (yet again) this year, but I didn’t stress as much as I would have if I had kept it to myself.

I’ve got a plan and lists, and deadlines still.  The most important being getting cookies to my dad, since I’ve tried to send him our favorites every year after my grandma passed and the post office lost his last year 😦

But they are mostly self imposed guidelines.   When I was honest with myself yesterday, I was stressed because I wanted to make Christmas miracles happen for everyone I love.  Well, I love a hell of a lot of people, I’m one person with a full time job, and hello? it’s the craziest time of year.  I may feel like I’m admitting defeat, but it can still be a successful Christmas even if I don’t pull off every miracle I hoped to.  It’s the thought and not material items that matter most.

At least, that’s the story I’m sticking to when I give Random a half knit/crocheted gift on Yule.  (Hey, it’s entertainment for him to watch me finish it right?)