holidaze

well...that time of year is coming up. Christmas. Ok, i know it's actually a little bit a ways, but not for us. Now is the time, where we think about the trip to Chicago. how many days. where we will stay. plans plans plans. i honestly cannot think of a more stressful time in our lives...that happens to recur every year. it's the actual planning of this trip that is probably more stressful than the trip itself, but not by much. i do want to say, that we love our families and enjoy seeing them. but i admit that the stress of everything can sometimes make it difficult to actually enjoy the time.

what makes it so stressful? well, a few things. expectations. and how particular days/times are very much coveted (e.g. - christmas eve, christmas day, and particularly evenings for those special days). and lastly, our desire to please everybody makes this trip stressful (e.g. - for myself, it is seen in feeling the need to spend every waking hour with our family...which as an introvert, is terribly exhausting. i need to be okay with being awake, in my room, spending time with JC).

every year we come back with a list of dos and don'ts for next year. but truth be told, the one about "stop trying to please everyone" is definitely the hardest to actually do. sometimes i want to give up going home for Christmas because it's so stressful and I think that if we just go during a normal week no one will care which day we see them because there are no "special" days to fight over.

on the note of how many days. Right now, it's a toss up between 6 days & 9 days. remember, need to divide by 3. so, 6 days is pretty pathetic because it's really just 2 days with each family unit. 9 days is a little better, but by then, i'm usually quite burned out. it's easy for me to think right now that i'd be more than happy with 6 days, but i know i'd regret it and miss seeing my family.

ok after a few paragraphs, i'm just going to stop and ask for prayer.

thank you :).