Hello from Debbie! Well, it’s the week before Christmas and all through my house things are not going so well. In spite of my extra efforts this year to start early, be organized, and cut the crazy, I feel like I’m unraveling a little. But I want to tell you why I’m calm and have a smile on my face. Because in teaching Cut the Crazy out of Christmas, in addition to learning how to DO Christmas, I have learned how to cope with Christmas. So, as I look at my unchecked lists, I keep a few things in mind. If you’re stressed and frantic, maybe my ideas will help you too.
Let’s go over the basic principles of Cut the Crazy: 1) Start early. 2) Use a planner. 3) Control your calendar. 4) Adjust your attitude.
Don’t worry about #1 – that’s in the past. Go on to #2. Find a half hour and sit down with your planner or notebook. (Play some nice music.) If you aren’t using a planner or if you’ve abandoned yours, I encourage you to get back to it. It will ease your mind to write things down. I just wrote all my menus for the next ten days and re-wrote my gift lists and I can’t believe how that cleared my mind of some things I’ve been worried about. A full set of planner downloads is available on adornitdigital.com for just $10.00.
As long as
you’re sitting down you can also work on #3! Take a few minutes to look at your
calendar. Make sure you know what is happening each day. If you need to find
some time for shopping, wrapping or cooking write it on your calendar, then
keep that appointment with yourself. Maybe you need to schedule an hour to
spend time playing with a child or sitting by the fire with your husband – the
things that will bring holiday joy. The point is that you carefully craft your
days to make the best use of each hour. If you do that, you will begin to feel
more in control.
#4 is about focusing on the joys. It helps me to take a deep breath and be aware of the music that I love and the wonderful smells around me. Displaying a cute scrapbook layout with one of my favorite Christmas photos helps me remember what’s important and why I love Christmas. In my layout I used papers and stickers from Adornit’s Holly Jolly Collection except the lined paper which is from last year's Happy Holidays Collection. Warm wishes to all of you as make the best of this Christmas season.
