The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

The story is the same year after year.  Thanksgiving comes and it’s like a starter’s gun goes off --Runners take your mark.  Get set.  GO!!!

And for the next four weeks, we are in a full-out sprint to the end of the year. 

Decorating

Gift shopping

Wrapping

Cooking

Cleaning

Tree-trimming

Greeting cards

Concerts

Recitals

Parties

Year-end work deadlines

Family gatherings

Hanukah

Christmas

Vacations

And finally New Years Eve

Don’t get me wrong.  I really do enjoy the holiday season so I’m not complaining.

OK, maybe I’m complaining just a little bit. 

It’s all good stuff (well, everything except the year-end work deadlines) – I just wish that we could spread it out a little more.

The holidays are awesome – fun, festive and heart-warming.  There’s just way too much crammed into a four-week period.  Each year, we burn the candle at both ends for this intense and sustained period of activity that we’re lucky when we don’t get sick from it.  And it is a rarity that one of us doesn’t get sick during this time.

It’s hard to not get a little stressed when this most wonderful time of the year rolls around.  How will we get everything done?

My solution – one day at a time.

What’s the point of doing all of this stuff if you can’t enjoy it. 

So enjoy it.

As difficult as it may seem at times, enjoy whatever you’re doing when you’re doing it.  Sure, you’ve got lots to do later, tonight, tomorrow, this weekend.  But you’ll still have to do it when it’s time.  So don’t let it invade whatever is going on right now.

Tonight, we had a Hanukah celebration.  Nothing crazy or over the top.  Just a few family members that we don’t see often enough having dinner, catching up, exchanging gifts and sharing a moment.  It was delightful.

I am thankful for having these people in my life.  I am thankful for, and so proud of my wife and kids.  In this, the most wonderful time of the year, I will contemplate all I have in my life to be thankful for and make sure to celebrate those things with these people.

-- Frosty