Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Christmas Crazies Are Upon Us

Today I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

The decorations are up at our local shopping center. Christmas foods are filling the shelves in the supermarket and quite frankly I'm surprised that I haven't heard a Christmas carol yet.

There's only 41 more days till Christmas and I've done absolutely nothing about it. Zip. Zero. Zilch.



And what's worse - yesterday was my #3 son's birthday and I still haven't bought his present. He knows I haven't got it but he's been in exams and it's been on the low end of the list of priorities. But I still feel bad that I haven't done it. And I haven't made him a cake. And we haven't had any birthday celebration whatsoever.

Usually I can do my best interpretation of an ostrich, put my head in the sand and pretend that it's not happening.

But with Iven still being out of action, I know that most of the Christmas prep will be over to me and I won't even be able to delegate the running around part.

So today I decided that I had to rectify some of those 'haven'ts' - the ones' relating to Luke's birthday. I bought a card. I bought a small gift (not his main one because he wants something that requires his input and a bit of research). His cake's now in the oven. And I've realised that I can't get this far behind when it comes to Christmas planning because no one will be happy if we get to Christmas and I tell them I just haven't got around to it yet.

So I've started to make a list in my head of what has to get done and that's why I'm overwhelmed. There's a list of people to buy gifts for but no inspiration for a gift for a single person on that list. There's the looming birthday of the love of my life - again no inspiration for a gift. There's about twelve rhythmic gymnastics costumes that have to be created. And I use the word created because one does not simply make a rhythmic costume. It takes a lot of time and effort and creativity.

I'm feeling a bit ill about it all.

I thought Christmas was supposed to be a time of joy and peace. Not feeling much of either of those at the moment but I've got a chance to rectify that and the first thing I need to do is write a list. Not just make a list in my head because that starts to send me all sorts of crazy. The list in my head is not tangible and seems to grow exponentially with every thought. A physical, written list has a beginning, middle and end and, best of all, can be crossed off as things get done. Seeing things being crossed off helps with the anxiety.

So here's the start of my list -

Bake Luke's Birthday Cake
Buy Birthday Card and write on it

Two things crossed off my list! I'm feeling better already.

And the other thing I'll be doing to help with the pre-Christmas crazies is to run. Or to walk on the days that I'm not scheduled to run. Running is so good when it comes to helping me keep my life in balance. And sometimes it helps me come up with solutions to problems so if I write my list of people to buy for just before I run, I may come home with a comprehensive list of gifts to buy. Or I might totally forget everything by the time I get home - it's so easy to get distracted while you're running.

So now I have to come up with a way of jotting down my inspiration while I'm out. It's not weird to run with a notepad and pen is it?

PS - Just taken the cake out of the oven. New recipe. It overflowed the tin a little so the top of the cake is messed up. Thank goodness for icing - it hides a multitude of sins!.

9 comments:

  1. Icing is like magic, for cakes! :)

    I recommend a series of lists, rather than one big one. Remember to make everything "actionable" (one specific task that can be done). Like, for each person you need a gift for, there are three items: choose gift / buy gift / wrap gift. Plus, then there's more to cross out. YAY!!!

    I don't really know what the online shopping situation is like in Australia, but if it's any good, then delegate some of the shopping to Ivan. Surely he can sit still and work the computer for awhile, no?

    And most of all...keep things in perspective. Maybe this year people get duplicate gifts, or gift cards, or whatever - so be sure to take time for yourself, too. And heck, you're off to a great start, since there are still over 40 days left! :)

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  2. I haven't even started on anything remotely Christmas either. It seems so early and yet....
    I really want to go in a completely different route with Christmas this year but I don't know how my family will react so it will probably be the norm - crazy and hectic!!!

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  3. Ummm were we supposed to have started on Christmas stuff?!?!? ....if so I'm failing epically over here! lol

    and I hope Iven is ok! I've missed so much. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!!!!

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  4. 41 days, it's like training for a marathon, and you have to get all the training in or there is trouble... I know you can't do last minute training, but you can do last minute shopping.

    You should draw up a program with shopping days and time allocated to different people as if they were sessions, put it on your fridge and stick to it like any marathon plan!!!

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  5. I don't even start to think about Christmas till the beginning of December. We don't buy gifts, we don't give gifts (giving gifts is something that's growing here but we don't participate in this crazyness). I stopped sending Christmas cards last year because most people we know already stopped doing that before we did.

    All I have to do is get a Christmas tree but we buy that first weekend of December and to figure out what we are going to eat. My mom is coming over for dinner. But that's the fun part of the preparations: planning the dinner :)

    Good luck! Having a list always helps me, I'm sure it helps you too.

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  6. Happy birthday to your son!

    I hate Christmas foods filling the shelves two months before. Since the first week of November we have seen Christmas cakes in the supermarkets.
    You have time, Char (about six weeks).

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  7. I'm very bah-humbug-like when it comes to Christmas. This year it's just my mum and I again and I've suggested we volunteer somewhere at lunch and did have a nice dinner at home later.

    Hope everyone loved the cake (and that exams have gone well!!!)

    Deb

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  8. I LOVE Christmas. But not yet. I too worry about the stresses that come with it. I try to keep them away but it doesn't always work.

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  9. This time of year makes me crazy, too! We have to do quite a bit of traveling (for Thanksgiving and Christmas), I have my big race mid-December, my kids go on their annual school ski trip (which requires a lot of prep work and worrying by me), and then all the normal gift-buying, decorating, cooking, etc.

    Whew! Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, Char! :)

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