Hey, I know I’m a couple weeks late here, but my wishes are sincere nonetheless. Life has been pretty crazy since I returned to work. I haven’t been able to do much writing. Even now I feel like I’m stealing time that I should be doing something else. It’s the never-ending internal dialog beating ourselves up. One of my new year’s resolutions is to change that internal dialog.
How were your holidays? I hope that you were able to use some of my tips and tricks for getting through the holiday rush.
Our holidays were . . . different. From Halloween on, I detected that there has been a significant shift. With the two youngest being 17 and 13, we truly have crossed the line into the “no child” zone. The 13 year old decided that she was going out to trick or treat by herself! She came up with her costume on her own, and off she went with her phone. I didn’t make cookies, I didn’t have costumes to put together, and I didn’t have to quit work early to get children ready to TOT. It was weird! And wonderful!
For Christmas, my new employer has a holiday shut down from Christmas eve through January 1st. In the past I didn’t take much time off during the holidays. I always found it a good time to get clean up tasks done. My youngest has been begging me to take her to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I said no. Never. I am not a theme park person. I told her that I’d take her to England if she wanted to see “real” HP sights. But, when I realized that I’d be in a forced vacation at the end of the year, I decided that this would be the only opportunity, so I asked the kids if they wanted to forgo our traditional Christmas for a trip to Orlando. My two daughters opted for the trip. (I haven’t finished writing my review of our trip, but I will and post it here soon.)
The rest of the holidays were planned around the fact that we were going on the trip. We got a smaller tree, didn’t put up as many ornaments, and backed off a lot of the decorations. Shopping was completed almost exclusively on line. Like Halloween, I was noticing a big difference in planning for Christmas with three older children. No concerts or pageants or teacher gifts. It was so relaxing! So, if you have young children, and are still in the crazy Christmas phase, know that before you know it, it’s over and you enter this new, less hectic, more adult phase of Christmas. It’s kinda nice and kinda sad too.
Now the holidays are over, and (most of) the decorations are all put away. I’m now trying to set my goals for 2019. I know that I need to do some major decluttering. I also really want to get my kids to do more around the house. I’ll be sharing these tasks and how I approached them as I have a chance. I’ll also be sharing my experience with Meal Delivery Services, and being a traveling working mom.
So stay tuned!
