Stress Free holidays? Only if I ran away to a desert island and lived alone on coconut milk and papaya in a drift wood shack and a grass skirt. Wait, then I would just feel sad that I was not with my family.
Such a pickle, the stress of creating a holiday memory or much needed rest and peaceful connection with loved ones. The little girl in me shouts, “I want to have my Christmas gingerbread and eat it too, under a live tree with pretty lights, already wrapped presents and jolly Christmas carols sung by a choir without a lot of effort!”
Ways to reduce stress and increase time, money, energy over the holidays.
The minute Mamaguru.com, aka Rebecca Confino published her new book Stress Free Holidays: Bring Back Joy & Peace. I grabbed a copy. I always enter the holiday months with a yippy and an ugggh!
The Stress Free Holidays To Do List
As the Mom of the house a load of extra work falls to me during the months of November and December. Where will I find the money, time and energy to create a loving family memories?
Realizing that a simple key lime pie took an hour to make, Rebecca, author of the book Stress Free Holidays: Bring Back Joy & Peace wonders to herself.
Just because something is easy to do, doesn’t mean it does’t take time to complete. It made me wonder how often I dismissed the enormity of my own TO DO LIST.
The thought bounced around in my head until I was brave enough to look at the holiday TO DO LIST Rebecca created for the book. It is an overwhelming list of items, we as a culture try to complete to make our holidays merry.
Have you ever really thought about all the extra things you and your family do during the holiday season on top of regular work/school/household schedules. Rebecca’s The Great Holiday To Do List allows you to see on paper the crazy amount time, money and energy that go into the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years Holiday season.
Budgeting Your Money, Time, and Energy to Create a Merry Holiday
Sitting down to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner so tired you just wish it were over is no one’s idea of a good time spent with family and friends. Just the acknowledgement of the work that goes into The Great Holiday To Do List made me feel better. I am not alone, in my desire to create warm memories without exhausting myself or the family finances. Taking Rebecca’s list as a template, I started crossing off things that my family does not do over the holidays.
Crossing off items on the The Great Holiday To Do List released me to think more carefully about the traditions I wanted to foster in my family. What parties would we attend, what spending was important, was homemade eggnog really special or did the kids just turn their noses up at it?
This is why you need an eraser. Saving energy requires letting go. Magic doesn’t come from perfectly planned moments; magic comes from being genuinely open to moments of your life. Stress Free Holidays
Rebecca then goes on to discuss the polarity of holiday math.
Adding simply takes away from happiness. Stress Free Holidays.
She then goes on to walk the reader through solutions to the heavy weight of holiday cheer, giving practical steps to take to enliven your holidays with joy instead of empty obligations.
Two other freebie print outs come with the book and several guilt relieving clarifications about our need to produce the perfect holiday. In addition, Rebecca offers a unique look at spend especially on the “new holidays” Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Returning Joy to Holy Days
Rebecca challenges the reader in a thoughtful gentle way to reconsider all the obligations you fulfill during the holiday season. Which ones bring lasting memories and which ones are joy killers? Having a Stress Free Holiday does take some thought, but wouldn’t you rather be holding a little hand on a long walk rather that a pot holder in a hot kitchen?
Buy this book for yourself or your equally overwhelmed girlfriend this holiday season. It is a quick read that pay a big dividend back in money, time, energy over this holiday season, stress free of course.
Many of these posts support the Joyous Family Blog with affiliate links. It costs nothing for you to use the links and helps us keep writing and producing joy filled family content.
Other Holiday Helpful Ideas
5 Get it Done Tips for Cleaning
Menu Planning that Will Save Your Time and Your Budget
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