Obligations: Much of what we do at Christmastime we have no choice on. (Now, we know we’ve told you several times, “Only do the things you love,” but remember we also said, “within reason.”) So yes, we have control over many things, but other things we just have to do whether we like them or not.
If we can’t control certain situations, we can control how we react to those situations. This is a basic ‘positive attitude’ principle, but it is especially relevant at Christmas time. So, pretend you’re on your way to a party that you don’t want to attend. You’d rather be scrapbooking or doing just about anything else. But you have no choice, you have to go. Decide in advance how you’re going to act. You can be cheerful and pleasant or grumpy and ornery. You will make that choice and it will determine how you feel the rest of the evening. Instead of focusing on your miserable self, try to forget yourself and reach out to someone else. Hey, maybe they’re even less happy than you. Consider that how you act can be your gift to the people you interact with. Just decide to be pleasant. Teach your children this principle, and it will pay off in years to come.
Expectations: Most of the time, we go along with our lives accepting our circumstances and coping as best we can. Some women are in difficult circumstances – emotionally, financially, health-wise, or relationship-wise. It’s amazing how strong and resilient women are as they deal with the challenges life hands to them.
BUT – for some reason at Christmas, some women expect some kind of magic to happen and things to be better or different. We encourage you to TRY to have realistic expectations. We want you to BE AWARE if you are having unrealistic expectations. If you can be realistic, you can control your reactions and disappointments during the holidays.
IDEAS AND HINTS:
In this section of your planner, file any magazine or internet articles you find that are of personal interest to you. Maybe the magazine has a list of “Quick and Easy Dinner ideas for December,” or an article about how to set up a gift wrapping center in your home. Just tear the article out and put it in your binder! This is also the section where you put the downloaded page titled “Suggestions for a Simple and Joyful Christmas.”
“The Suggestions page is my favorite page in the planner. I don’t need any hints when I start my holiday planning other than the ten suggestions on this page. I complied this list from all my reading and talking about Christmas over the past several years.
Actually, doing the suggestions takes discipline. Suggestion #5 says to take care of ourselves by eating right, exercising during the holidays, and getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep seems to be a universal problem. One December I wrote an entry in my journal titled, “People Are Yawning.” I had noticed as I stood in a long line in the grocery store that all around me people were yawning. Christmas is a time when we often stay up later and get up earlier. It’s hard to maintain our seasonal jolliness if we’re exhausted. SO read through the suggestions and take heed!”
CHARITY & HELPING OTHERS:
For many of us, helping others is one of our top priorities during the Christmas season, but it often ends up at the bottom of the to-do list. To have a meaningful holiday season, most of us we want to reach out to others, yet the busy-ness of the season seems to make it more difficult than usual. How many times have you walked through a department store during the week before Christmas and noticed that there are still Sub-for-Santa ornaments hanging on the tree waiting to be picked?
If you long to do more acts of charity during the holidays, but are simply out of time, we encourage you to do something on the spur of the moment – a random act of kindness. Keep some cash in your wallet that you specifically saved to give away. Leave an extra big tip when eating at a restaurant – I mean a tip that will move your waitress to tears. And if it’s a waiter or waitress who “doesn’t deserve a tip,” leave a big one anyway. Your charity doesn’t have to involve money. Have you ever been in a line at a store cash register and had to wait while the cashier requested a price check? Have you ever smiled and said to the cashier, “That must be so frustrating for you to have a long line of customers staring at you while you wait for help from management. I feel for you and hope your day goes better.” That alone can be a kind of charitable gift. Hint: be kindest to the grumpiest cashiers and waiters.
GIFT LISTS:
This is also our week to start making gift lists. We have conveniently divided your gift lists into one list for your immediate family and one for everyone else. Even though it may be stressful to list every gift you have to give, it will help you be realistic and motivate you get started sooner. There’s nothing like crossing something off your list!
And now, our BEST HINT of all. Put an envelope to hold your receipts in the back of your binder. Just get a manila envelope (the 6” x 9” size works great), punch two holes in it, and place it in the back of your binder. As you shop, place your receipts in the envelope.
They will be there when you need to make returns or exchanges or when you need a receipt for a warranty. Make this a habit and you will be organized through the season and after Christmas as well. Remember as you make your gift lists that it’s important to be a “smart shopper,” but it’s even more important, especially at Christmas, to be a “heart shopper.” In other words, the loving message behind the gift is as important as the gift itself.
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