No flip-zing out

When I bought my 2007 planner in January, the first thing I did was to take a pencil and write the following sentence over every week between Thanksgiving and Christmas:

"I will not make myself crazy about Christmas."

This is because I was nearly certifiable by the time December 25th rolled around in 2006. It had been a crummy year, in general, but I didn't help my sanity by all the things I tried to do during the holiday season. So I decided right away, on New Years' Day, to write a reminder in my calendar, to save myself from decking the halls at McLean hospital this year.

And so far, so good. Once in a while I catch myself going overboard, like when I thought I'd use Kathleen's idea from last year and do chocolate-dipped pretzels and then decorate them, in addition to the normal baking I do for the kids' teachers and therapists around the holidays. What was I thinking? Let them eat flipz.

Of course, as I write, my printer is busily turning out my Christmas cards, which I then need to address and mail. But this may be the last year for that: I read an article in the Ledger about "green" gifts, and one suggestion for the environment was to create a virtual card and then send emails to everyone on your list with the link to the card. That may be my strategy next year. And I did simplify a bit, already, by deciding not to do a Christmas letter. I included the link to my blog on the back of the card instead.

Part of my motivation for trying to simplify things is that Christmas itself is always extra busy, because of the masses I sing on Christmas Eve and Day. So if I'm stressed out on the actual day, and also stressed out for weeks beforehand, the holiday season becomes more of a hassle than a special time. And frankly, that's how I've felt about it for the past few years. Not good, when the kiddos are really at the ages to enjoy the holiday and all the traditions (with the exception of spiked eggnog.)

So I'm making my own cards, but not stressing out because they're not perfect (neither am I.) I'll bake goodies for the special folks in our lives, but I won't fret that they're not packaged as nicely as Martha Stewart could do it. And if our Christmas tree isn't up for a couple of weeks, that's OK, too.

Wishing you a peaceful December. Take a deep, cleansing breath for me if you get a chance.