Stessing out

Do you ever feel stressed out over the holidays?  I sure do.  Every year I try to figure out ways to change things so that I'm less stressed.  One year I wrote down all the extra tasks I do in December - there were 30 additional tasks!  No wonder I feel stressed!

As I looked over the list, I didn't see any tasks I wanted to eliminate.  My son's birthday and my husband's birthday plus a number of relatives' birthdays fall in December.  The birthday celebrations plus Christmas make for lots of activity.

Seeing all those extra tasks written down did help me realize why I was feeling stressed.  While I can do some things ahead of time, I also decided to give up on some of my routine tasks.  For example, the weekend I wrote Christmas cards the house did not get cleaned.  While the bathrooms were a bit grungy, we all survived!

Prioritizing what I really want to get done helps reduce the stress.  Since I can't do it all, I have to choose to do what's most important ... and be satisfied!