Reflecting before resolving...

Okay, it happened again. For all my good intentions and pre-planning, the holidays still ran away with ME before I knew it. (Did you notice that this is my first post since December 16th? Does it strike you as meaningful that the date was the same as the end of school and just one week away from the BIG DAY itself?) LOL

Well, before I get all resolution-y about how I'll do it differently in the coming year, I've decided to take life into my own hands and stop for a bit. Stop? Yes, STOP. Stop to reflect on what, why and how before I resolve to do any thing at all. Does that make sense to you? Call me crazy, but for all us multi-tasking gals out there who cook, shop, bake, swap, and generally do it all to create those oh-so-memorable holiday moments NEED A BREAK before breaking down on ourselves.

Okay, maybe I WAS still shoving gifts into cute bags right before walking out to meet the next recipient. But that was only because I spent five hours of my wrapping time out shopping for my dad so HE could have presents wrapped and ready to give, though he no longer drives and shops himself. Maybe I did have a single marathon baking session - my one-woman cookie swap, my husband says - instead of savoring a different batch several nights in a row. But that was because I spent some of my cooking time cooling my heels over a cappucino with my best friend who's going through one of those bad 'first' holidays this year.

So see, I do have my reasons. And the more I think about them, I realize they are darn good ones, and way, way more important than what I had 'planned.' Sometimes you just need to throw your tightly-wound schedule out the window, or as my hero Joseph Campbell says: "You have got to let go of the life you have planned in order to live the life that is waiting for you."

Ahhh. I feel better now. Thanks for listening. I'll be ready to move on to those resolutions in a bit. Till then, I'm going to stop and remember all the good times from THIS holiday before moving on.