Day 5 of the Blog-a-Thon
Day 3 of #getitout

Are you ready for Christmas?

7 Days until Christmas and 12 days until my surgery. Everyone keeps asking “Are you ready for Christmas? Do you have all your shopping done?” I wonder how we got here? Where Christmas turned into a mad frenzy of go here, go there, buy, buy, buy.

Doing it a little different

This year we’re having a relaxed Christmas. We are not having the big traditional spread. Big traditional spread means we work harder and longer to prepare enough food to feed our extended family and 3 more of equal size. We then eat leftovers until we can’t stand it. Why? Seems really wasteful, not just of money and food, but of time with the family that we’ve traveled to see.

We’re taking our kitchen time and trading it in for some floor time with the kids, maybe a nap or a walk in the snow together. Seems to me like a no brainer. (If you don’t really like your family anyway, this plan won’t work for you.)

So yeah, I’m ready for Christmas.  Ready for eggnog and playing with new toys that are the best ever, at least until next week. Ready to relax and enjoy my family.

Now, am I ready for day 12? NO. But with 12 days to get things together, I will be.

 I have a plan

 Day 1: Kitchen cabinets -seems like a silly place to start, but I’m use to my kitchen, I’m comfortable with it. But today, Day 1 is cleaning (sorting and organizing more than cleaning) the kitchen. Of all the things I don’t let go of freely, control of my kitchen is high on the list.

But when you’re physically not able to do things for yourself, you have no other choice but to let go.

I was surprised the first time I had this surgery.  I was certain I’d just have a day or two in bed and be able to enjoy the rest. I had a much longer recovery time and I wasn’t ready for letting others help me as much as I needed.

Organizing my cabinets lets me surrender control easier. After a conversation with Jennifer Hollander, an organizing professional, I felt much better about tackling the days ahead.  She said that people don’t know how or where to start and then get overwhelmed and quit before they begin. She told me to take it in little chunks.

Chunk one – the kitchen.