HOLIDAY STRESS

A conversation with my sister got me thinking... The holidays are way too stressful. Too many families worry about picking the get-together day and time and it gets to the point where everyone spends so much time driving around and making it from event to event, you can't even enjoy yourself. I am so lucky because my family is not this way. We have Christmas at Grandma Bertie's at 2 on Christmas day, but my immediate family (parents, brother, sister, nieces, nephews) just meet up whenever it's convenient. It could be the weekend before or after, a weeknight with spaghetti dinner, or July! It doesn't matter to us but relieving that idea of "we need to set a date and time now and stick to it and everybody has to come" is too much! Everyone has their own way of how they want the holidays to go down and deciding who's plan to follow is just horrible...it's supposed to be a time to relax and enjoy each other and take a break from real life to live in a holiday bubble for a week or so. That's impossible to do when you're driving around pleasing everyone else's holiday plans. Here's my advice -- do whatever makes you happy and think as little as possible. Happy Holidays Everybody! And Merry Christmas!