To all Official Holidaymakers …

Last January, I heard a great segment on NPR from a mother who labeled herself as her family's "Official Holidaymaker." I love that title. I totally get it. I am our family's Holidaymaker. It is my job to make sure the holidays happen – at least in the completely commercial sense. I send out over 100 Christmas cards, buy, wrap and mail the gifts, decorate our home, bake the cookies everyone loves and host assorted holiday parties. I empathized with the woman on NPR, when she said that on Christmas afternoon, she collapsed onto the couch grateful that it was over. I have been there. I have had those holiday seasons when I am most grateful that it is just over. Isn't that sad?

I remember the Christmas that our youngest was about 8 weeks old. She had cried (actually screamed) most of her waking moments, I was struggling with recovering from a second c-section and I was exhausted from trying to create the "perfect Christmas". On New Years Eve, I walked into the grocery store and almost ended up on the 10 o'clock news. The stockers were putting out Valentines. I nearly went crazy. Okay, to be perfectly honest, I did go a little crazy. I marched over to the teenager stocker and went off. There was no need to put up Valentines! It was New Year's Eve! Couldn't we just celebrate New Years for a few days before preparing for the next holiday! When you are screaming at a grocery store employee about the evils of commercialism at 9 pm on New Years Eve, this would be a big sign that your holidays have gone dreadfully wrong.

Since that Christmas, I have tried to find a balance between what "has to be done," and doing what brings me joy. For me, the first step is marking a day on the calendar when all the "have to do" things are finished. From that day forward, I will only do the things I enjoy. This year the date is December 13^th. By the 13^th I will have mailed out the cards and gifts, given out gifts to the kids various teachers and packed for our Christmas trip. Whatever does not get done by that date, just won't get done this year. That will leave me 12 days of Christmas to actually enjoy. I will make a ginger bread house with the kids, build a fire and play Scrabble with Pete, and knit a special gift (I can't say who it is for!)

I hope this year to wear my badge of Official Holidaymaker with pride and joy, not exhaustion and grumpiness. The Holidaymaker deserves to have a holiday too. So to all you Holidaymakers out there – I challenge you to mark a day on your calendar when you too will sit back and start enjoying the holidays.