I always find this time to be both full of friends and family, and adventures, but also stressful because of work deadlines before the holidays (or school deadlines in the past), money issues, and worries over gifts.
Last night I had the first solid sleep I have had in awhile, and didn't wake up at 3 am for several hours with too many things in my head. So in honour of this, here are some ways I have been trying to let go some of the stress:
- Plan ahead, especially in terms of finances and how much we can actually afford this Christmas.
- Seek alternative or homemade gifts. Tonight we are going out to dinner with friends; this is our Christmas present to each other. They are coming over for drinks before we go so we can save money and not buy drinks there. Instead we will enjoy good food, which, since 2 of us are pregnant, is all we care about these days anyway ;)
- Order online. Honestly, the books I ordered last week was the easiest presents I bought. They arrived within 4 days, and shipping was free.
- Simplify. I am my biggest critic sometimes, and I need to realize others don't expect as much from me as I do of myself. Sometimes it is ok to simplify, whether it be letting go of having a perfectly clean house, or not wrapping those presents to perfection, it is ok.
- Make time to relax. My biggest problem, and I need to do this more now I am pregnant! Last night was great though. Mr W refused to help me put up the tree and said we could do it today instead. So I ate dinner, read a bit, watched some tv and was asleep before 9 because I was exhausted. Mr W is pretty good at relaxing, I think this is one reason I married him because he is a good influence on me.
There are some of my thoughts, I would be interested if anyone else wants to share how they keep the stress out at this time of year.
(ps: can you let blogger know that your commenting friends miss their names being clickable?)