How to make the holidays meaningful (and manageable)

At the end of October, as Blake's travel baseball team said the last "good game" and we decorated the house for Halloween, I took a high-level view of my calendar, from November until the end of the year. Then, I looked at my schedule week by week.

I asked myself, “How much time do I really have to work with?”

I reviewed the goals I set for myself in 2022. I paused to acknowledge the ones I'd met. And then, I decided what I can realistically focus on right now, and what can be deferred to 2023.

Then, I considered the holidays, and I asked myself:

How do I want to feel?

What drains my energy?

What fills me up?

What do I really want to do and experience to make the holidays feel meaningful?

What always stresses me out because I wait until the last minute? (shopping, wrapping, sending Christmas cards)

What can I let go of completely?

If you're struggling with any of these questions, remember that if you opt out of something this year, it doesn't mean you have to opt out forever.

Before we dive into the last weeks of 2022, let's call it what it is. It's a season. It lives on its own little island. It's not your whole life.

And yet, we all know that the holidays can be a lot. A lot of things to do. A lot of feelings and energy packed into a short amount of time. It can feel too big, too much, or too lonely, or too fill in the blank.

But it's finite.

And, if you're ready to wrap this year up already, I'll add that now is a good time to start looking ahead to January. If there's something you know you want to start or refocus on in 2023, go ahead and block out the time now before life starts bossing you around.

The key is deciding in advance.

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Feed These People by Jen Hatmaker. With chapters like “Food for when you want to seem fancy” and “Food for when you have no more damns to give,” I knew this was the cookbook for me.