Well, if you're like me, you do not enjoy the holiday music blaring in all public spaces from Thanksgiving to New Year every year. 'It's the most wonderful time of the year' is one such holiday favorite.
On one hand, we can embrace it all - the Christmas decorations, Santa Claus, baking cookies and cakes, setting up trees, playing all of the holiday music, shopping, gifting, eating a ton and spending long hours in shopping malls trying to find the perfect gift for a loved one, making the most of the end of year sales, enjoying the decorations and the whole experience. Some could even take the opportunity to plan big trips and travel during this time of the year. Disneyland, southern California (LA and San Diego), and Tahoe are the common ones in our neck of the woods. There are those that do their vacations to India/China or other home country. A few more head out to the Caribbean or Western Mexico. The options are plentiful and there is fun to be had by all.
There is the other side of it and this is more along the lines of where my anxiety leads me. Some of us are triggered by sensory experiences and for me, it is lights and smells that overwhelm me. The malls during the rest of the year are already an unpleasant experience for me. Going to them when they are brimming with crowds, bright lights, loud music blaring (and not the pleasant kind, might I add), the explosion of red, green and gold, and the nauseatingly sweet smell of treats being sold, just makes for a downright miserable experience. The flu season is at its peak, so that most wonderful time of year is actually the worst for me. It is also this period (winter) when my health anxiety is at its peak - I have had traumatic winters for the past four years which further triggers it. So it's no surprise that I find myself at a loss for how to deal with it all.
Now, I could just hide out in my own home and world, hibernate, and wish it would all go away while the health anxiety does not get triggered. But I have my family living with me. They deserve a slice of happiness during this season and so do I, in fact. We've been through a lot and have worked very hard at keeping ourselves afloat while painstakingly making the best choices for all of us every day. We have put in time, effort, money, and all of our wisdom and resilience to get each others' needs taken care of. So, at this time, we do all deserve some relaxation, peace and a way to enjoy one another and to be appreciative of everything we have and where we are in life.
So, there you go. A balance needing to be struck. I tackled the kids' experience by doing a lot of little things along the way over the past few weeks. They were all to my liking and I found myself actually enjoying it and having a bit of holiday spirit. Our encounter with Santa was not at a crowded mall where my germaphobic self would cringe and fret over it all. We didn't pay $$$ to get those photos of our kids on a stranger's lap. But, we were lucky to have our little neighborhood organize a holiday party at the community pool - an outdoor setting much to my happiness - and Santa was there to spend a morning with a handful of kids. They got to talk to him, have story time with him and ask him tons of questions. My toddler could run around in the grass and in the open and I wasn't worried about him touching germy surfaces as I would have been in a mall. The kids (my daughter and niece who spent the day with us) enjoyed cookie and ornament decorating, sipping hot chocolate, and a few other activities. We were so thrilled with this holiday party that I could just mark Christmas done with this one and be happy.
The next thing we did was to take my daughter to the Nutcracker ballet. She has been enthralled by it over the past year and this was her special holiday treat. We also did a neighborhood drive through and saw a ton of Christmas decorations. I did bake with my daughter - dairy free cookies (which turned out tasting a bit like dog biscuits but which she and I still enjoyed), and a delicious dairy free chocolate cake that we all enjoyed (substituted almond milk for regular milk, and Earth balance butter sticks for butter, added eggs as usual).
I kept up my regular routines on other fronts. I worked a lot, and this actually helped me feel grounded as I learnt a new technology area. I tried to stay active with walks when possible. We finally bought ourselves an area rug for our living room, which I now put a sheet on and do my yoga on (I've only managed to a handful of times, but it has been great when I do). I have continued writing and working, and being satisfied with our daily routines of walks, trips to the park, cooking, keeping up with the house, unstructured playtime and reading with my kids. I've tried to practice daily gratitude logs, affirmations and acknowledge little milestones of progress. I try to read when I can, and even found the time to take an epsom salt relaxing bath a couple of times. We decided to keep things simple for our family this year, and not travel or make any grand plans whatsoever.
I kept up my regular routines on other fronts. I worked a lot, and this actually helped me feel grounded as I learnt a new technology area. I tried to stay active with walks when possible. We finally bought ourselves an area rug for our living room, which I now put a sheet on and do my yoga on (I've only managed to a handful of times, but it has been great when I do). I have continued writing and working, and being satisfied with our daily routines of walks, trips to the park, cooking, keeping up with the house, unstructured playtime and reading with my kids. I've tried to practice daily gratitude logs, affirmations and acknowledge little milestones of progress. I try to read when I can, and even found the time to take an epsom salt relaxing bath a couple of times. We decided to keep things simple for our family this year, and not travel or make any grand plans whatsoever.
My husband grumbled through the process of buying a tree, setting it up (a live tree needing to be installed on a base) and blamed me for 'adding more things at the last minute'. But when it was done, he was thrilled with it and it definitely makes our home look very festive. He was reminiscing about Christmas at his grandma's growing up, and the smell of Christmas trees which were plentiful in the region. We put up lights only yesterday, but it was another enjoyable activity for my daughter. We also put up stockings for the first time at our fireplace. We are spending Christmas eve at home relaxed, Christmas day at my sister's (lunch) and the day after Christmas with another family, who are like family friends to us, at our place. I squeezed in a bit of shopping one afternoon in 3 hours (after doing a ton of online research to narrow things down) and hopefully have that bit taken care of.
This past weekend, I did a bit of carol singing with my daughter with YouTube on the TV. We were having fun and enjoying it together while my husband cooked dinner. Then my husband killed the spirit for us by chiming in, in a false soprano voice "Si---lent fa---rt" as we were singing Silent Night! Welp, a glass of wine and us singing his version of Vive le Vent after this (you can guess how this went) had us all in splits. :) That's sort of what the Christmas spirit is all about, no?
This past weekend, I did a bit of carol singing with my daughter with YouTube on the TV. We were having fun and enjoying it together while my husband cooked dinner. Then my husband killed the spirit for us by chiming in, in a false soprano voice "Si---lent fa---rt" as we were singing Silent Night! Welp, a glass of wine and us singing his version of Vive le Vent after this (you can guess how this went) had us all in splits. :) That's sort of what the Christmas spirit is all about, no?
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