The arrival of the holiday season
This may not come as news to most Americans, but tomorrow is Thanksgiving. On one level I knew that the holiday was coming. I saw it on the calendar. I planned my week around the fact that the kids would be out of school. But somehow I did not really wrap my head around the notion that the holiday season would be arriving so soon.
I used to start thinking about Christmas gifts as soon as Halloween was over. I liked to have all the shopping done before Thanksgiving. Nothing was out of stock yet. Everything was lined up and planned. I’m afraid I was internally smug about my organization, although I never felt judgmental about people who ran their holidays differently. I had a system and it worked.
Somehow that system has fallen apart the last few years. Part of the system breakage is due to the fact that I am much busier. I don’t have much time for planning an event three months in the future. I’m too busy scrambling to cover stuff for this week. Part of the shift is because the kids are older. When they were young I could plan what everybody would give to everyone else. These days the kids need to do their own participation and gift planning. They have their own gift strategies and I have to let go of control. The letting go of control is a big part of it. I’ve had to embrace the fact that while I am the organizer of family events, there are aspects of the holiday celebration that I should not attempt to control.
Even though my holiday strategy has shifted, I am still left feeling like I ought to have done my shopping by now. I’ve been so busy this fall that I honestly have not had a thought to spare. This leads me to worry because the next few weeks will be even busier. I still won’t have thoughts to spare, but I’ll also have holiday shipping and holiday events as well. I’ll have to cram the holiday shopping thoughts into my brain on top of everything else. Perhaps for the first time I understand what feeds some of the Black Friday hysteria. The drive to hurry and get the shopping done during this time off from work.
On the other hand, taking each of the kids out on a shopping trip has some appeal. I picture each of them with their own several-hour-long outing where we partake of the holiday mood while selecting gifts. Only that brings me back to the issue of time, and brain space. It is one thing to take a child out for a relaxed couple of hours, it is another to force march a child through a store to acquire gifts on a schedule. I’m really not sure how I’m going to managed to get this holiday pulled together on time and under budget, particularly since the budget is tighter this year than in the past two years. We didn’t have a Fall book release this time.
Part of me is ready for the holiday season. I’m ready to decorate the house and play holiday music. I’m looking forward to burning down the advent candle while reading stories to the kids. Yesterday and today have had a holiday feel which is nice. I love that warm, relaxed feeling. It is the associated task list which I’d be happy to skip.