A holiday lesson for me

I hope everyone has had a happy holiday, or at least made it through okay.

This was my first holiday season away from my family. While I did make it home for Christmas, being away and buying gifts in New York and not being in conversations on group gifts and what everyone wants was weird (are you getting the picture that gifts are a big deal in my family?).

When I got home, I was so anxious it was hard for me to enjoy anything. I was worried "did I get the right gift?" "did I say the right thing?" "did I get to see everyone I wanted to see?" Truthfully, the answer to all of those is most likely, no.

While stress freaking out, a friend told me she had decided to have a good Christmas. I thought this was an amazing concept until another told me that it's okay to have a bad Christmas. Bad Christmases happen and stop freaking out about the small things. Did I stop freaking out? Absolutely not. But I kept these words of wisdom in mind on Christmas day when I didn't feel the gift I'd given was adequate or someone was breaking tradition, ect.

Christmas is only one day. Outside of the baby Jesus stuff—which I'm not going to get into here—it's for spending time with those you love and appreciating each other. I get too stressed out about everything being perfect, about me being perfect. The gifts and the decorating and all that isn't real. But the experience of being with those you love is, and that is what's important.