Balancing the Holidays

I must say, I am quite worn out from the holiday season.  Shockingly, I had 90% of my shopping done before Thanksgiving.  My exhaustion comes from 'celebrating' the season.  I spent years of my life hoping and wishing to be part of the Christmas parties and celebrations all around me. Now I find myself longing to curl up alone on my couch and watch that movie with the ugly green guy that hates Christmas.

My family wasn't the most sociable lot and my mother's only consent to holiday traditions was the annual decorating of the not so edible sugar cookies.  When I became an adult, my own insecurities kept me from being the sociable creature that was apparently hiding inside.  A little FYI, insecure people don't tend to get invited to parties and never throw them.  It wasn't until fairly recently, when I decided to let my little sprightly light shine, that I began to experience all the season has to offer.  I am now beginning to realize that perhaps 'all' may be a bit much.

Now, I am a great touter of balance.  Mostly because I rarely have it in my own life.  In my exuberance to experience all that is merry, I seem to go a bit overboard.  There are the obvious housewife things, like baking cookies (not my mom's recipe), making gingerbread houses, decorating the house, twinkle lights outside, etc.  But, what seems to push me over the top is my incessant need to host one extravaganza after another along with the acceptance of all invitations that come my way.  Now that my insecurities are nicely hidden, I can't seem to keep the offers to socialize away.

So, here I find myself half way through the season having hosted two parties with three to go.  And, I have lost count of the number of festive events I have already attended.  Quite honestly, I think my unsociable mother may have been on to something.  Her holidays may have been boring, but no one will ever be able to say she was stressed.  I really have no desire to revert back to the days of my youth and isolation, but do feel that I need to work on the balance thing.

That said, I am currently working on a list of things NOT to repeat for next year and the reasons why.  I plan on taping the list to my box of fall decorations, so that I will have plenty of time to ponder the voice of reason before I start inviting the entire planet over for an ornament, sock, cookie or kid exchange.  I'll let you know next year if I finally find balance, at least in this one area of my life.