Christmas Stress

I felt my own sense of stress during the week before Christmas. Even though I was determined to keep things low key, I still found myself in the midst of the craziness of Christmas. Mostly, I got caught in Christmas traffic(it was CRAZY!) and I got caught in Christmas crowds(also CRAZY!). By the time I finished shopping, I felt quite stressed and I certainly did not feel "in the Christmas spirit." One good thing, though--even though it took a LONG time to complete my shopping, I did find some good sales and bargains. I think I did quite well keeping within our small budget this year. My teens may not have had a huge spread under the tree, but they were happy with the things that I found for them. I am sure that MANY families had to have small Christmases this year--hopefully everyone found a way to make the holidays special even if they had to be on a very small scale. Maybe next year things will be better--I certainly hope so! For us, there are only 2 more Christmases left with my son before he leaves home--and 4 more with my daughter: I want to make those last few holidays special ones for them. I know that the way to do that is NOT to spoil them rotten with material things, but to make the last holidays at home with family special ones. Still, they don't want to be treated as children as they prepare to leave home, so there are many things we did for years that they absolutely do not want to do now. I will try to do some things in the next few years during the holidays that will give them good closure on their years at home. Hopefully we will still get together for the holidays when they are grown and on their own, but it will never be the same as it is now. Christmas in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 won't look anything like it did for us when they were young children, but I hope we can make some wonderful memories as they enjoy their last Christmases from the perspective of living at home. I have some good ideas that I hope to implement during this time--hopefully I can pull them off! And then, once they are grown and on their own, I have some ideas on how to enjoy the holidays together during that time, too--and they won't be traditional holidays at all! So, even though things are changing, I hope to make it through the Christmas stress each year to make things special for my teens during the holidays. It can be a challenge, but I think I am doing okay so far!