Echo of Silence

The Christmas season is traditionally filled with intensity..between the noise, the lights, the excited children, the mad dash for housecleaning, cooking, and baking in preparation for guests, crowded stores, and the heightened emotions as we all attempt to keep up with the pace of the holiday..and then in a matter of hours, the day is over as quickly as it began. This Christmas, due to financial constraints of the past year’s economy, it wasn’t practical to travel any distance to spend it with family. In light of our upcoming quiet Christmas at home, I chose certain aspects of the holiday to focus on, rather than convincing myself that I am Superwoman and can do it all..because I know myself well enough to understand that in trying to do everything, the quality of what I do will invariably suffer in consequnece. That being said, I made holiday slush for us to enjoy all day long, lit a candle for ambiance, handed over my chicken to the crock pot and let it do the cooking for me, and the rest of the day was spent watching movies with Mike and Patrick; we had no particular plan and just let the day take care of itself. I must say, this made for a rather enjoyable holiday of total relaxation and absolutely no stress. Although I love being with family and having guests over the holidays, I think sometimes it is just as nice to do the quiet celebration at home with family bonding and no distractions. Next year we will most likely go back to being social for Christmas, but I will remember this year as the year we did absolutely nothing..and LIKED IT.