Welcome December…I like this time of year. I feel festive for the usual holiday reasons, and also because I’ll be celebrating my birthday in the next few days. There are some schools of thought that don’t like December birthdays, but I enjoy that there are already many celebratory things to do, and so I can just plug into that. For instance, I’ll take myself to go see some pretty holiday decorations early next week as a birthday treat.
(I do worry that my 2- almost 3-year-old will have the worse version of December birthdays, since he is right after Christmas and people might be feeling over-tapped…)
Anyway, these next few weekends will definitely be feeling a bit full, but that’s fine. I’ve never been big on the “simplifying Christmas” trend (see this old blog post). Life tends to come in waves. The calendar feels a little more full now, but it will feel a little less full in January. Indeed, some wise folks actually push some of the holiday celebrating into January to make that otherwise bleak time of year feel a little more merry and bright. (Quote from the blog post: “There is plenty of time to not do stuff in January.”)
A few links…The Next Big Idea Club ran its “Book Bite” about Tranquility by Tuesday this week.
You can listen to my interview on The Mountain Life here.
Sarah and I have been thrilled to see some new faces in our Best of Both Worlds Patreon community after we posted the curriculum for next year. Sarah will be leading her annual goal-setting workshop on December 15th (noon eastern) so if you’d like to join us for that, please sign up before then.
Before Breakfast this week covered several topics. For instance, on Monday I pointed out that “Weekends are real days too.” Even if you “only” do something on Saturday and Sunday, that’s still two times per week, which is not nothing. If you follow my adage that three times a week is a habit, you’d only have to do your habit one weekday plus the weekends to make it a regular part of your life.
I also shared a great pocket phrase for acknowledging feedback, whether you plan to do anything about it or not: “Thank you for bringing that to my attention.” Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, but it’s helpful to establish that you and the person noting a problem are on the same team.
I was happy to learn in a recent accounting statement that Before Breakfast continues to get about 1.2 million downloads per month. If you haven’t checked it out before, please do!
In the meantime, I might make it to three different holiday train displays this weekend. We shall see!
Photo: A previous holiday Lego display. We’re still working on this year’s holiday village…
I use “Thank you for bringing this to my attention” all the time. As a physician I sometimes deal with patient who are disgruntled by an interaction with office staff, often related to issues beyond our control like recent drug shortages. However, the office staff are not directly managed by me. I don’t want patients to think I don’t care, I do. And if the issue needs to be addressed I will pass it along to the appropriate manager.
I loved your take on Christmas on your older blog post. Some people seem to want to make Christmas as minimalistic and low-key as possible and that just seems joyless to me. You can be all ascetic during Lent instead!
I love the Christmas article, too! I try to embrace the season and take it in little snippets. While I am not a big shopper anymore, I plot out a few mornings early in the season to wander a few shopping areas/Whole Foods/Target and soak in the decor or festive items on display. This year, I’ve decided to write out and mail 10 holiday cards per day until I am done, and have also spread out the cookie baking on my calendar so that it is not an exhausting marathon. I also buy myself an armload of holiday-themed magazines each year and spend a little bit of time at night paging through them. I have a 7-day stretch or social plans this year-at first, I was a little stressed about having them close together. Then I realized that (1) all but one will not consume an entire day and (2) they will allow me to spend time with people that I enjoy. We can snooze in January!
I love the Christmas magazines idea!
@Sarah K – me too! I now have the O quarterly, the Pioneer Woman, and Magnolia – all I bought at the airport last week. Paging through them and the others I get (Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, HGTV) has given me a fair chunk of Christmas feels!
@Sarah K-Barnes and Noble had several bundled together in a set-for example, Food & Wine and Taste of Home. I think Good Housekeeping and Southern Living might be together as well. I believe the bundle was cheaper than buying them individually. @Laura, I miss some of the old school magazines like McCall’s, and love that you read some of my traditional favorites.