The Holiday Survival Guide was created for families as they head into the most magical – and oftentimes, the most stressful – time of the year.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The holiday season does not have to be full of obligations and overspending and feeling unappreciated. Below, you’ll find a series of videos that tackle some very common feelings and situations that may arise during the holidays. You’ll also notice that a guest in some of my videos is the wonderful Maggie Dent. She is an absolute gem, and a true Queen of Common Sense.
Playlist
Merry Bleepin' Holidays! When is it all too much?
As I sit here and type this post I am camped out on my couch. The lights are dimmed, it is late in the evening, my boys are sleeping, the Christmas tree is sparkling, the fire crackling, and the cat and 2 dogs are napping close by. Idyllic right?
Yes – very.
But let me widen the view so you can see the rest of the picture.
The dishes in my kitchen from the snacks we have grabbed here and there between swim meets and family dinner and badminton practice and holidays parties (and all of that just today) are stacked everywhere. It is long after bedtime and I can still hear my husband reading away to our youngest upstairs who hasn’t quite been able to settle to sleep. The stack of files and reports that are waiting for me – presumably to be written before my annual Christmas vacation begins – is still just as tall as it was last week.
The laundry mountain awaiting our attention has reached new record heights. There are no groceries in the fridge leaving me to wonder what kind of magic is going to create school lunches for tomorrow. My gift shopping list is as long as ever. I am hosting a party for 30 people on Friday and I have yet to sit down and think about what I need to get on top of for that to happen. I have five full days in my clinic this week and 3 holiday concerts to attend in the evenings. The other two evenings I am working late hoping to make up for the 2 days I couldn’t work last week due to the rising tide of vomit from a flu bug that invaded our home and, in part, created said laundry mountain.
Still feeling idyllic? Not so much. Or maybe…?