The month of December is upon us and I can feel my stomach start to tighten. (And this is no easy feat after the hearty Thanksgiving meal I consumed!) I don’t know about you, but the beginning of the twelfth month of the year, puts the daze into holidays for me.
I think it must be some type of throwback to my younger years when I tried to make Christmas the ideal experience for one and all. Of course, I spent days roaming the mall attempting to select the perfect gifts and garments for family and friends. I’d agonize over whether Patty would prefer the green or the blue sweater, and then usually end up buying both. She, of course, would return them and get something she really wanted.
I’d also bake twelve to fifteen different types of cookies, arrange them on festively designed plates, and then drive them all over town dropping them by to friends and neighbors. I’d festoon every inch of my living room with garlands and bows, and spend hours deciding where to hang each of the hundreds of ornaments on the tree. In fact with the Christmas tree, the decorations, the cards, the cookies, the gifts, and preparing several holiday dinners to boot, I’d usually get sick by the start of the New Year. At a minimum, I’d get what I lovingly referred to as “Christmas neck,” which was where my stress landed and made its home.
Now, however, as I write these words, I can feel a rather smug smile cross my face. I’m realizing another immense reward of having kissed my fifties goodbye years ago. I no longer bake fifteen types of cookies—at our age, who wants the fat and sugar? I no longer agonize over gifts and over spend—at our age, who needs a dozen green and blue sweaters? I no longer take hours to decorate the house—at our age, who’s still hanging stockings? (Unless, of course, there’s a houseful of grandchildren.) And, best of all, I no longer get “Christmas neck!”
For all these glorious reasons, I emit a hearty “ho-ho-ho” and wish each of you a very happy and stress-free (okay—almost stress-free) December!