With all of the work on my plate, the events, shows, parties and such, 2012 Christmas season has been even more of a pain than previous years.  The frenzy of trying to squeeze it all in during a one month period reminds me that I need to focus on getting it in during the year, not just now.

We don’t give gifts for Xmas, we donate to charity.  Throughout the year, I get mail outs from those charities asking for donations to be spread out during the year, not just at that one hyped up time of year which is Christmas { my words, not theirs}.

And they are right – so plan 1, when I finally get around to making our donations { we use CanadaHelps.org } on behalf of family members for holiday gifts, I will be looking at setting up a monthly plan, or at least scheduling in my own calendar to make the donations on a more year-round way.

And seeing folks over the holidays is fun/stressful/superficial/whacky and full of contradictions. We want to see people and this time of year, we are programmed to schedule in that time to go to parties and re-connect o a social level.  But we cannot attend every event and can get very crazy trying.  And when we are there, it’s loud, distracting and again we are trying to squeeze in those quick catch up conversations with everyone we know, so that we only really get that soupçon  of connection.

So that’s plan 2 – make time for double date nights, fifth wheel nights { this would be the mix of couple and singles,just to be clear}, girls nights, guys nights, etc. throughout the year.  We had already begun doing this in 2012, and while again, we cannot attend every event, if we know there are planned out multiple options, we will at least get in 4-6 visits outside of regular channels, as opposed to just one whacky party!

Cards…

I did not get cards out this year – I might, after I finish my work load this week. I will try to go digital at the very least and bombard emails/twitterfeeds/facebookwalls etc with some adorable imagery of the season sending greetings of joy to all of you.

Or I may just sleep.

In my “week off”, we will travel and host, and see cultural events and visit with family – just like everyone else.  And in that brief period of time, I hope to catch up with my husband and new doglet. Cause we’ve had a busy 2012.

So, Christmas, don’t be hurt, don’t be offended.

Yule barely got a toast from me this year, and it’s closer to my heart.  It did get a Cherpumple, though, so I guess you can feel a bit left out as you’ll be getting the leftovers…yes, Cherpumple does seem to freeze okay – must be the preservatives in the cake mixes and store bought pies.

The remaining half will emerge when we host my family – Bwahaha!

So, Merry Christmas to all of you who have the spirit at this time of year.  May we start to create a balanced approach and keep it going throughout the year, instead of the standard collective manic burst for the rest of the month followed by the post Cherpumple Coma.