Christmas is only a week away, guys... I know, I can hardly believe it, either. In fact, Christmas completely crept up on me. And am I ready for it??? Do I have my list of Christmas posts prepared? Are all of my Christmas presents made and/or bought? Am I mentally prepared for celebrating Christmas? The answer to all of those questions is a...
Christmas is an awkward time of year to be a minimalist. With so much emphasis being put on gift-giving, it's definitely a quandary for those of us who genuinely do not want to get more stuff... This will actually be my first year celebrating Christmas as a minimalist. As a result, I was a bit unsure how to approach the whole gift-giving thing....
It seems everyone is looking for "ways to survive the Holidays" this year. In fact, the holiday season has become almost synonymous with stress.
But is that how it should be?
I would say no, and I'm sure almost everyone would agree with me. Most people lament the fact that they never have time to really sit back and enjoy the holidays... So why do we persist in creating such a stress-filled season?
Perhaps it's because we have lost sight of what's most important.
This season should be a time of joy, peace, and celebration with the people you love.
We shouldn't be surviving the holidays...
We should be enjoying them.
But how can we do that when everything is so stressful? With the crazy-busy schedules you're trying to balance, the gifts you're trying to buy, the long-lines at the store, the cranky relatives, and all the other negatives that make this season so stressful...
How could you ever find a way to enjoy it?
Well, I can't pretend to have all the answers, but here are my three biggest suggestions for enjoying your December.
1. Don't focus so much on the things you can't have. Stop dwelling upon the fact that you don't have the money to buy a bigger tree, or set up a huge yard display, or buy tons of fancy gifts for your kids. Instead, take time out to remember all of the things you do have. Because I'm sure, if you look around, there really is so much to be thankful for.
2. Don't stress over the little things. Traffic is annoying, store-clerks aren't always as efficient as you would like them to be, and sometimes a batch of cookies gets burnt. Do not obsess over the things that go wrong. Instead, take a deep breath, remind yourself that these things happen, and move on.
3. Remember the reason we celebrate at all. Regardless of the origins of the holiday, and regardless of what society has made of it, we celebrate because of what Jesus did for us. We celebrate because we have hope.
This week, I want to encourage you to look beyond the stress of the season and remember to enjoy it.
...
Do you get stressed-out by the holiday season? What are your tips for making it less overwhelming? Be sure to share your response in the comment section below, over at my Facebook page, or you can email it to me at anastasiarosewrites@gmail.com.
Also, be sure to email me your holiday-themed guest post! I'd love to feature your work here on my blog, but the season is almost over, so get it in soon.
"She wasn't where she had been. She wasn't where she was going. But she was on her way." -Jodi Hills Life is a journey... We all have a road to walk. We're all going somewhere. It's not always easy. Sometimes the path is unclear. But there is one thing I know for certain- No matter who you are... ...Or where you live......
Last month, I began a project... This month, I'm going to finish it. For the past several weeks, I've been working on unpacking and clearing out the things I don't want. The plan had been to get it done as quickly as possible so it would be finished. But... that's not really what happened. Instead, the work went really well for the first...
We finally got around to setting up our Christmas tree today... Setting up the tree is somewhat of a big to-do at our house, especially among the little folk. Our tree is the kind that involves a fair bit of manual labor to get it assembled. Each branch has to be individually fluffed and put into its spot on the "trunk." Also, each...
On Wednesday, I shared my 2015 Bucket List. Since then, I've gotten a few questions about how all of this was going to work, so I figure that this post is the perfect one to follow up with. So- let's get started! What made you decide to make a 2015 Bucket List? After I had created a life-time Bucket List, I thought about...
I've been thinking a lot about my Bucket List, and decided to make it official. A few weeks ago, I shared the Top Ten Things on My Bucket List. Prior to writing that down, I hadn't put much thought into a bucket list. I kept saying there were things I'd like to do someday, but I guess it was just never a top...
"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about." -Angela Schwindt Children are beautiful... I took my little sister outside this afternoon, and decided on a whim to take the camera with me... There was no posing or attempts to capture a particular shot. I just stood back and clicked the shutter...