"Unhurried & Quiet"....

Hello Friends, How are you all?....I hope everyone had the loveliest of Thanksgivings!....And now before we blinked twice it is "Christmastime". It seems that everyone is putting up trees & decorations, ... shopping & hanging lights, yet it is still November?......
The media makes it sound like if you haven't given much thought to the upcoming holidays, that you indeed are already a few steps behind?....What's up with that?
I have to say, that through the years, I have approached preparing for the holidays from many angles.
I have been the "working girl" that was so busy with her job, that I waited to the last minute to get anything much done.
I have had years where I declared proudly that I was making all my gifts,... which also ended with many unfinished projects!...& last minute trips to the mall!
Then of course I felt doing everything super early was the way to go!...but like my husband pointed out,... I started out wonderfully organized, but just kept going!?.....I made presents & even wrapped them, tucking them away in late summer early fall...& went on to forget all about them, only to re-buy more gifts!?
So the other day, while contemplating about how my mother created our childhood Christmases....I began remembering. I remembered that my mother always reminded us that Christmas was a "holiday", not the entire month of December.
December was a month to quietly & calmly prepare for the most special of holidays....not one to spend stressed out & over-burdened. Mid-month we would put up our tree,...might possibly my most favorite holiday activity!.... decorated with ornaments we had for years tucked in a large department store box, each one wrapped in tissue.
Our Christmas decorating was sweet & charming,....nothing too planned or "style-ized" about it. Preparing for Christmas was "tradition", not decorating magazines dictating the newest fade.
What I remember most though, is that getting ready for Christmas was not hurried, it just happened a bit at a time.
The house, the lovely gifts & the cookies all came to be,...unfolding slowly those last couple of weeks before Christmas.
So with these memories in mind, I will be taking one step at a time,.... allowing Christmastime to calmly surround me...unhurried & quiet. I wish you the same.

Heidi
xo

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