To add to the usual Christmas-crazy I had an unusually busy December at work (one international and 2 domestic trips – which included lots of preparations for client presentations) and was over-committed to Girl Scout and Cub Scout events.
Here’s what I did to make things a bit more sane for myself during the holidaze this year:
1. I delegated everything I possibly could or felt comfortable with to others. This meant our 10 yr. old did a lot of the gift wrapping.
2. Make the stuff you “have to do” as fun as possible. My best girl friend and I do all our holiday baking together. We make about 10 varieties (sometimes we mix some cookies ahead) and bake them in one marathon day while our kids play. We eat (guac and chips and other snacky foods), chat and sip iced tea the whole day while rotating trays of cookies in and out of the oven. Then we pack up half the cookies for her to take home with her..and voila, Christmas baking is done and it was fun in the process.
3. I did nearly all of our Christmas shopping at Amazon. I even recall buying some presents from their mobile app, on my phone, while walking in the airport. How’s THAT for multi-tasking? Seriously, this should be #1 in my list—because this is what made Christmas shopping tolerable. EVERYTHING came on-time or ahead of schedule. Love, love, love Amazon. Plus I loved getting package deliveries nearly every day (I work from home, so seeing the UPS or FedEx guys with yet another package was a nice distraction).
4. I cut corners where I could (e.g. store bought frozen cookie dough for the sugar cookies that the Girl Scouts baked and delivered to elderly shut-ins) and did only the things I really felt were important (hand written notes in our Christmas cards and the favorite Christmas dishes I like to eat were made by me..).
5. Above all, @Aster, cut yourself some slack. The guilt and insomnia you experienced tell me you were beating yourself up…and it’s not worth feeling bad about. You do the best you can do with the hours awake you have each day..but make room for taking care of yourself. Give yourself a break and do something that relaxes you so you aren’t stressed out, unhappy or guilt-ridden. I take long hot baths with lovely Japanese bath powders, read a book for a bit and get plenty of sleep..even with this busy month (and a Jan. 1st departure to the other side of the world for yet another work trip).