by Ashley
My Arizona “Christmas Cactus” that I had up last year by Thanksgiving.
My Mom and Stepdad are coming out this year to visit for Thanksgiving. This is only the second time ever (in the nearly 20 years of living out of state) that they have come to visit for the holiday! I am thrilled to be hosting and beyond thrilled to be able to celebrate the holiday with family!
That being said, the planner-inside started getting a little crazy with planning. Before I knew it, I had a mile-long menu of all the foods I wanted to make. Add to that the fact that Christmas keeps starting earlier and earlier. It feels like half our neighborhood already has lights and yard decor up and I was starting to stress myself out over the fact that we haven’t even started.
When I was complaining to my husband over the weekend about all my stresses over my “must do’s” he pointed out that a lot of my stress was self-imposed. Yes, we’ll be “hosting”…. but there are only 6 of us in total. I don’t need to make enough food to feed an army!
And there’s no need to decorate for Christmas this early. That might be a fun activity to start decorating together the Friday after Thanksgiving. I’ve lived away from home nearly my entire adult life, so it would be a special treat to do some of this together!
And overall, I was just getting ahead of myself. Yes, it feels like the weeks have been flying by – I can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost upon us! But there’s no need to rush the holiday. It’s perfectly fine if we don’t put up Christmas decor until November 28-29th (or – GASP! – wait until December 6-7).
I think sometimes social media creates this unnecessary pressure to do things earlier or to keep up with neighbor’s nearly perfect displays by doing more or bigger than previous years. But I don’t want to lose focus on what really matters most – the family time. I don’t want to spoil that by imposing all this pressure for things to be “perfect.” I’m just happy to be having the time together.
