I call the second weekend of December “cookie weekend,” because that’s when social media posts start to look something like this: I refuse to shop this weekend! I’m staying home and baking cookies!
The second week of December is when the fuse burns low, and the patience is frayed beyond holly-jolly parameters. We’re a couple of weeks into the holiday buzz, and the pressure is at the tipping point. This is the peak of the holiday season, and frankly it’s too much. You’re tired, your stressed out, your schedule is overloaded, too many people are on you for too many things, you’ve had enough, and now it’s time to revolt. To hell with it all; I’m baking cookies. If you aren’t knocked out with a cold or the flu, that is. Then that’s a whole different thing, because your body beat your mind to the revolt against the holiday frenzy.
I believe this is normal. Think about it: what’s the one phrase you hear the most when you ask people how they are at any given time? You know, so say it with me:
“I’m busy.”
If that’s the case the other 51 weeks of the year, then it’s no wonder that Candy Land looks appealing right now, because life went from hectic to impossible. Most of the self-help gurus would remind you that you’re in control of your schedule and the cookie-baking revolt is a sign to take that control back (which is right), but I’ll venture in another direction and say that this too, is normal. That’s right, it’s normal to get frustrated with life this time of year. In fact, if you aren’t at your wits end right now, then I think you’re either lying, or completely out of touch with reality because the world really is out of control right now. There is absolutely too much going on out there right now, and you’re wise to pull the plug and take a break. Nobody can do it all, and nobody should try.
It happens to us all from time to time: we’re overloaded, there’s too much going on, there are too many problems, everybodys’ let you down, relationships aren’t at their best and the pressure to have a Normal Rockwell holiday when you don’t even want to see people is maddening. It amazes me that it’s the twenty first century, and we still have that idyllic Victorian image of how the holidays should be. We want it, we strive for it, and we forget that there are no dishwashers anywhere in those pictures, are there?
Simply stated, we’re out of touch with reality. It isn’t just you. It isn’t just me. It’s all of us, together, caught up in the whirlwind fantasy frenzy of what the holidays should be, instead of what they actually are. The bar keeps rising because we want every Christmas to be “the best holiday ever,” not realizing that we’re setting unattainable standards by raising that bar just a little more every year, and now it’s at a place where we can’t clear it. Now what? Can we be satisfied with lowering our expectations a bit for the sake of sanity? Can we be ok with an ok Christmas? Can our best be enough? It will have to be, because in the end, that’s all we have to offer.
And perhaps that’s the point of the second weekend cookie-baking revolt: to prove that you’re only human, and that your wants and needs are just as important as everybody elses’. We all need to know that we’re accepted and appreciated for who we are and not for what we do. We all need to feel that our best is good enough, and that others have the grace to pardon (or even fill in) what we can’t achieve. We all need a break to take care of ourselves every now and then, because if we burn out, then we won’t be good to anybody. So take that break, folks, and happy cookie baking this weekend.
That’s all today. Have a great end of the week,and a wonderful weekend.
Bye!
The second week of December is when the fuse burns low, and the patience is frayed beyond holly-jolly parameters. We’re a couple of weeks into the holiday buzz, and the pressure is at the tipping point. This is the peak of the holiday season, and frankly it’s too much. You’re tired, your stressed out, your schedule is overloaded, too many people are on you for too many things, you’ve had enough, and now it’s time to revolt. To hell with it all; I’m baking cookies. If you aren’t knocked out with a cold or the flu, that is. Then that’s a whole different thing, because your body beat your mind to the revolt against the holiday frenzy.
I believe this is normal. Think about it: what’s the one phrase you hear the most when you ask people how they are at any given time? You know, so say it with me:
“I’m busy.”
If that’s the case the other 51 weeks of the year, then it’s no wonder that Candy Land looks appealing right now, because life went from hectic to impossible. Most of the self-help gurus would remind you that you’re in control of your schedule and the cookie-baking revolt is a sign to take that control back (which is right), but I’ll venture in another direction and say that this too, is normal. That’s right, it’s normal to get frustrated with life this time of year. In fact, if you aren’t at your wits end right now, then I think you’re either lying, or completely out of touch with reality because the world really is out of control right now. There is absolutely too much going on out there right now, and you’re wise to pull the plug and take a break. Nobody can do it all, and nobody should try.
It happens to us all from time to time: we’re overloaded, there’s too much going on, there are too many problems, everybodys’ let you down, relationships aren’t at their best and the pressure to have a Normal Rockwell holiday when you don’t even want to see people is maddening. It amazes me that it’s the twenty first century, and we still have that idyllic Victorian image of how the holidays should be. We want it, we strive for it, and we forget that there are no dishwashers anywhere in those pictures, are there?
Simply stated, we’re out of touch with reality. It isn’t just you. It isn’t just me. It’s all of us, together, caught up in the whirlwind fantasy frenzy of what the holidays should be, instead of what they actually are. The bar keeps rising because we want every Christmas to be “the best holiday ever,” not realizing that we’re setting unattainable standards by raising that bar just a little more every year, and now it’s at a place where we can’t clear it. Now what? Can we be satisfied with lowering our expectations a bit for the sake of sanity? Can we be ok with an ok Christmas? Can our best be enough? It will have to be, because in the end, that’s all we have to offer.
And perhaps that’s the point of the second weekend cookie-baking revolt: to prove that you’re only human, and that your wants and needs are just as important as everybody elses’. We all need to know that we’re accepted and appreciated for who we are and not for what we do. We all need to feel that our best is good enough, and that others have the grace to pardon (or even fill in) what we can’t achieve. We all need a break to take care of ourselves every now and then, because if we burn out, then we won’t be good to anybody. So take that break, folks, and happy cookie baking this weekend.
That’s all today. Have a great end of the week,and a wonderful weekend.
Bye!
RSS Feed