Wind Down Week
November 15, 2009 by Barbara Jacoby
Filed under Creating Happiness
Every year, the holiday season comes and goes so very quickly and each year I promise myself that I am not going to have that happen again without enjoying the season to its fullest. To that end, I have officially declared the coming week to be Wind Down Week wherein I will complete every non-holiday project that I can and anything that does not get done will have to wait until next year. Let me explain how this will work.
I have a holiday tradition that actually starts on Thanksgiving. Every year, I put up all of the Christmas decorations including the tree (artificial now that I live in Southern CA and everything dries out so quickly) before Thanksgiving. Then on Thanksgiving night, I light the tree and the candles in the windows to inaugurate the holiday season and enjoy the pumpkin pie while watching “Miracle on 34th Street” and “White Christmas”.
Now this is a great start to the season. However, by the next day, it is back to normal with doing the housework, cleaning closets, reorganizing everything to accommodate the empty boxes that hold the decorations, etc. But, it is my belief that if I eliminate a lot of these non-holiday activities, I will be able to do holiday things that I have not done for years.
Due to time constraints each year, partly which result from a full-time job, I have been shopping online for everyone’s gifts. Now while I will still do some of that this year and will use the internet to search for ideas, I need to return to the malls and enjoy the beautiful decorations and all of the music that is played and seeing the faces of the little children as they stand in line to visit Santa and tell him about their special wishes. That is all a part of putting me into the mood of the season. A part of this fun experience is also enjoying a bite to eat at a local restaurant afterward so I will also make arrangements to do that, too, most likely with my husband or with a special friend, if Kirk is not available.
Now, I don’t mind a little hustle and bustle but taking into account that that might be more than I would want to deal with on a weekend, I have scheduled a couple of vacation days away from work for just this kind of activity. I also plan to use some of that time to do something else that I haven’t done for years and that is to bake Christmas cookies. The wonderful smells coming from the kitchen from doing the baking while playing lots of holiday music really lifts my spirits and adds to the sense of accomplishment when the job is done and I look at all of my fine masterpieces.
My weekends at home will be spent doing some online shopping, making lists of gifts for family and friends, writing our holiday greetings and ordering our meals to be delivered while watching holiday movies the whole time. My goal is to enjoy the season and that includes a greater focus than ever on giving to those who feed the poor, to support our local stores and restaurants in these tough economic times and to give special gifts to my family and friends that have been either carefully made or selected and that were chosen from the heart. Yes, I am sure that this will be the best holiday season ever.
How will you enjoy the holiday season? COMMENTS
I always sent up my tree and lights the day after thanksgiving. I have little traditions that I do with my kids. They love the holidays. I used to love them, but now I have a different feel for the holiday’s, they are both fun and a little depressing for me, because it brings up childhood memories of my family that has been torn apart by my parents divorce and secrets. 6 years ago on Dec. 27 I found out that I had a different dad than my siblings. My mom had been married to the man that I thought was my dad for three years when she got preggo with me. She kept it from my “dad” for 8 years, and kept it from me for 20 years. I’m still trying to find myself, but I keep moving, everyday, I don’t dwell on it. But every holiday season those are the memories that come up weather I like it or not. But I have been blessed to have had 3 kids they take the attention away from sad memories. Just seeing their faces light up every time they hear a Christmas song or their excitement over seeing lights just warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes. They have taught me to go back to a simple live, to enjoy the little things, and to make my own memories with my children even though those memories will be different from my childhood ones.
I am so glad that you have the children to help you to create new holiday memories. Although I do have wonderful memories from my childhood of the holidays, that was a long time ago. My parents and my brother are no longer living and my sister will be spending the holidays in Europe with her daughter who is living there now but that’s okay. I have created a whole new set of memories with my husband (no children in our home) that I wouldn’t trade for anything. They are nothing like the ones from my childhood but they are just as special to me as anything from years gone by. I just am so grateful for the opportunity to have this year to enjoy the holidays so much more than any other in the past and I will make sure that that is what happens. And from the sound of things, you, too, have embraced the spirit for yourself and your family and will make these the best ones every. Like you say, just seeing the joy of the holidays in the eyes of your children is everything and those are the memories that will last forever.
What a wonderful idea. I think I need a whole wind down month though, but it will NEVER happen. LOL I too do most of my shopping online, but am planning on at least one trip to the mall to see Santa this year!
I know what you mean about a wind down month but that would never happen for me either. I am just trying to place less importance on things that don’t really matter very much. I am actually looking forward to my mall trip, too.
Sounds like “Wind Down Week” is a good plan! It is important to enjoy the season. I like to do most of my holiday shopping before the malls get to crowded. Right before Christmas, the malls get a little too crowded for me and then they start acting grumpy. My holiday shopping started last Friday ~ officially anyway. We went to the Nutcracker Market in Houston. It’s a huge 3 day shopping event with so many vendors that there was no way to see them all. The Nutcracker Market always gets me in the mood for Christmas. I love all the decorations and all the lights. I have to have an artificial tree because I’m allergic to real ones. My husband isn’t very happy about that because he loves the smell. But so do I and I certainly can’t help it. Enjoy your week of winding down. It’s going to be a wonderful holiday season. Starting now!!
I completely agree with you. I really want to enjoy every single moment of the holidays this year. Now knowing you, I’ll bet that you do a lot of baking and entertaining for the holidays. You are just so good at staying on top of all of those kinds of things. Wow, sounds like you have a fabulous place to shop for some really special and different gifts. As for the tree, I love the smell, too, but I’ll bet that you fill your home with lots of wonderful other smells so that your husband doesn’t even think about it. Well, I have one major project to finish this week and then I am done until January. The more I think about it, the more I like this idea. Have a wonderful week, too.