Yes, I was singing that as I wrote it. Anyway, I hope everyone is going to have a
wonderful holiday season. I am one of
the many that say “holiday” as opposed to Christmas unless I know the person
I’m speaking to prefers “Christmas”.
It’s not because I’m religious or anything, I just try not offend
anyone. Well, I mean I know I offend
people but honestly, I don’t really care.
I tend to follow the phrases, “What you see is what you get” and “If you
can’t handle the heat, then get out of the kitchen” (among other phrases,
haha). Anyway, this is the most
stressful time of the year to many people. I can honestly count myself among
those people. I love my family and of course they are stressful at times…what
family isn’t stressful at times, right? So I’m not really talking about that
stress. Well, I suppose I could.
Family
stress is different than other types of stress.
For me, because I have parents who have been divorced for a while, it is
kind of a big thing to determine which holiday to spend with which side of the
family. This year, I decided to do
Thanksgiving with my Mom’s side and now I’ll be doing Christmas with my Dad’s
side of the family. I’ve been doing this for a while. As an adult, it just seems strange that I am
taking the initiative to be the peacemaker of each side of the family…in a
sense.
I guess I
just naturally take on the role of making sure everyone in my family is
okay. While there are some quirks
regarding some of my family members, they’re still family. One of the things I’m sort-of looking forward
to is this upcoming weekend. Since my
father’s parents have retired to the state of Arizona – the ones I visited and
blogged about on my trip to and from there – it will be the first time we will
all be heading to Arizona for Christmas.
This is mainly because my Uncle who lives in California has a newborn
and it would be better to travel to Arizona than New York State. So anyway,
this upcoming weekend, Dad and I will be traveling to Arizona…by driving out
there. Now, I love driving and I love
road-trips. I even love seeing the parts of the country I don’t reside in.
However, I am really looking forward to spending time with my dad since we
don’t live close to each other (he lives in New York State). I can honestly say
we have never really had that “father-son” relationship that so many my age
have. We just view the world through
different lens and of course we have very different life experiences. It is
hard to relate to him as I think we are exact opposites. Knowing that though, I always try to reach
out for common ground and build on that.
If anything the past week has taught me, we need to hold on to our
family and be grateful of the time we have with them. So I image the time on
the road with my father will be stressful, but it will also be a chance to
rekindle that relationship we had during my childhood.
Another
stressful thing that makes the holidays stressful is the money spent during
this time. It seems that everyone is
always asking, “what do want for Christmas” or “Do you have your Christmas
list”…and that’s fine. I always create a
list, but I generally put things I need on the list. Heck, I even categorize my
list! I even color-code it! I know my
best-friend (and roommate in college) would make fun of me and bring up some
other things while laughing about it. So I love being organized, sue me! I
guess that’s why I always did better in classes than he did, haha! Anyway, I
think people tend to forget about the things that matter and get too wrapped up
in the superficial things in life. With
that said, I love getting things. I know I don’t need them, but I am a kid at
heart (yes, I just said that). I also love spending money to get gifts for
others. I am actually getting into the phase of, “Well, I’m going to start making
my gifts for people instead of spending money because they are from the heart”
because I’m told I’m getting older. I don’t know either! Maybe I’ll get married in the next year too
and have a child! See what I did there…I
got ya! Those two things are not even something I want to think about.
With the
holidays fast approaching and the stress that endures, it is important for
everyone to just stop a some point in their day and take some time for
themselves. I am at the point in life where I know this needs to happen
more. It is healthy and rewarding.
Within a few weeks, we will enter a new year and new paths to walk down in our
various roads of life. I always take the one less traveled, and it always makes
all the difference.
I hope everyone has a wonderful & safe holiday season!
May all of you be blessed and continue have good health through the New Year
and beyond!
P.S.
The world did not end today. So, to recap: Mayans - 0 & Humanity in the 21st Century - 1
No comments:
Post a Comment