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This time of year

noetoez
Member
3 8 84

I think everyone feels a little stressed out around the holidays.

The end of October, beginning of November is always mentally hard for me. I grew up with next to nothing, we were on the receiving end of the canned food drive more than once. There were years that Christmas wouldn't have happened if the local church had not left it on our front porch in a box.

I want my family to have enjoyable holidays every year. All of them. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. And all of our birthdays are in the winter. I am not a decorator, for me it is about the holiday experiences. We find places to go, things to do/see, I bake/cook. Nothing comes from a can, I make my own bread, that kind of madness. The holidays should be magic, because when I was a kid we were lucky that they happened at all. 

My usual annual melt down is money. How do I afford Halloween, November car registration, Thanksgiving, Husband's birthday (Dec 11), Christmas, Child birthday (Dec 27), My birthday (Jan). It all adds up, even if you do small things for everything. 

This year is different. How do I make things special when the things we can do and people we can see are limited? How do we celebrate the child turning 13? We have high risk people in the family, we know a lot of people who have gotten sick. How do we make this work?

I don't know yet. In years past, the holidays have led to smoking relapse. Not this time. I won't do that to myself again. I will take a deep breath, and figure it out.

101 Days of Freedom - No going back

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