Take Time to Smell the Poinsettas

We enjoy the hustle and bustle and getting together at various events with family and friends. Also, riding around to see xmas light displays. I think I enjoy all aspects. I love the shopping, wrapping and seeing the excitement in the kids' eyes every time they look at the xmas tree!

Aaaaw, I LOVE your post, I feel the same way.

Today at the grocery store, the guy in line behind me had several cases of 4 or 5 different kinds of beer, and that's it, no toilet paper or anything!

So I had to say.....'In-laws coming for the weekend?' tehehe, everyone within earshot giggled. Even those with that wildeyed "OMG I have so much to do I can't BELIEVE how many coupons this woman has, why can't they open another register, I will NEVER get it all done at this rate, ACCKK! look on their faces.

When the kids were younger it was hectic, but it was just NICE. Now the youngest is 14, there is just not that much for me to do.

I will have 4 teenagers in the house for a month (2 normally away at school, and one of those not even mine, my oldest's longterm GF), I've been fussing and getting ready and REALLY looking forward to everyone being home.

I do get a teeny bit stressed wishing I could spend more money, but I've got enough kid Christmases behind me to know it just doesn't matter. They love everything, they're happy, we're a lucky family.

I'm also deeply religious, so that ALONE is enough for me to feel good about putting 5 bucks in the SA pot for the third time this week.

So Merry Christmas to you all, even the short tempered grouchy ones!

:)

We don't do anything out of the ordinary to really suck up and take in the joy of the season, but we do just that, really suck it up.

I just try to constantly remain aware that this IS supposed to be fun, and to me, it IS fun. I love to be out and about, in the holiday hustle bustle, shopping, looking at lights, whatever. I let my son (who's 5) take his time and decorate our big tree, his 2 little trees, any my mom's tree... I let him pick through our decorations and decorate his room to his hearts desire. We either watch or have on in the background, all the Christmas specials on TV. We go to a couple local light displays, get out and walk around, have a hot chocolate, etc.

Basically, we just don't wish it all away. Yes, it's hectic and chaotic, and Yes, there is a lot to do. But you know what? It only lasts, what? A month? Then it's back to the normal grind. I'd trade the chaos for no Christmas, or a solitary, lonely Christmas any day.

So I'm with you... it bothers me to see and hear people being so down about having so much to do this time of year... I love it and I'm sad when it's all over until next year.

Oh, I love it too! My 10 year old got so excited to decorate the tree because that meant a "party" where we drink hot chocolate and bake mint chocolate chip cookies. I barely realized it was a "tradition" until she mentioned it. So cute! We love to look at the lights and the kids love to wake up to see how many presents I wrapped while they were asleep. It's hectic, it's crazy, it's expensive but it's FUN!! I love, love, love Christmas!! I don't even want it to come yet because then it will be over, lol.

I love it all too :)
I try to start shopping in October and spread it out, it really helps the stress level and I can take my time and find the right gifts. Decorating late November helps too. If you wait until last minute to do it all, well then it will be stressful!

We definitely go around and look at Christmas lights, we love to do that.. Also, decorating the house is a lot of fun at our place. I am ashamed to say, we have had the lights and decorations up since.. the day after Halloween... :):) ok I am crazy... but as a kid, I guess had a few rotten Christmases so that now as an adult... I tend to over-compensate :):) with fun ones..

I wish there was a "like" button on mamapedia for questions too. :) I agree whole heartedly with you: I love the shopping, cooking, decorating, and running around!
I admit that I have an unofficial, "secret" bank that I put extra money in all year long (just an old pickle jar in my closet) that I toss in whatever change I have while changing out of my clothes at the end of the day (my laundry hamper is in my closet too). That might be a few pennies, it might be the loose $1s (I'll keep the actual money in my wallet, but the receipt and whatever end up wadded in my pocket until time to take them off: whatever is "wadded up" is then saved up. I think that little bit of saving all year long helps take the pressure off of spending. I may pick things out here and there as they go on sale or whatever during the year (not a lot--maybe 1 item a month). I love Black Friday shopping as an event and have fun with it. That weekend, we begin decorating, and it's a little "party" to do so. We don't rush and make everything done last minute or on a certain day. We always have our tree set up and lights figured out the day after Thanksgiving, but from there it may take us a whole weekend to finish the tree, and it's together, and even my 2 year old gets to do it with us. We don't rush around like crazy---on a weekend we'll do lights on the bushes and garage, next year we'll do the windows and door as well. We accumulate just a little bit every year and have fun. It's just the 4 of us, but we invite a family or two over for dinner and a little party. We have our charities that we're involved in and that is SO MUCH fun to us. The cooking, the crafts, the family projects, the Christmas movies, the music (just the CDs we like, lol), everything we do is just at the pace that feels comfortable to us (faster than a lot of people like it, but not frenzied). I like that the other day I was at the post office in a long line, and we COULD have chosen to be aggravated, and I heard one lady make a couple little remarks, but noone bit. Then we started talking: about boxes and wrap, shipping here and there, who's getting what, Santa pictures, dogs, and it ended up being a nice, happy little time that had a lot of laughs, a lot of smiles, a lot of reminiscing, and even the lady with the cross comments was happy and joking around. I like the general feeling of good will that you can find if you choose to see it or help instigate it, among total strangers. That's fun. We DO take the long routes....we live on a circle and one day we'll go right to our house, another day we'll go left, one day we'll hit the cul de sacs on the left, one day on the right....just to see the lights. It's fun. And I think it's GREAT to smell the poinsettas (love that phrase, lol). Maybe it helps that I did have some solitary Christmases for a few years, so I just want to be happy and enjoy the fact that I have people to shop for, to cook for, to decorate for, to run around for.....and the ABILITY to do so. A little perspective goes a long way.

Great question! My first thought was I wanted to hit the LIKE button. Isometimes I start arguing with DH about decorating cuz I need his help, sometimes the shopping gets me frazzled, but I LOVE the season. Every where we go is a nice experience because we see all the decorations. Every night my LO and I wrap a present. He counts down the days to Christmas and opens a window in his advent calendar and talks about his excitement. we get excited over giving to others We sing carols and listen to Christmas music. WE always do something for family fun, this year we went to see the Nutcracker, one year we went to NYC, one year a light show, Our church always has caroling (to older people) and crafts. It's all fun