Welcome to my Stress Free Holidays series, I will be sharing some tips to reduce the amount of stress this time of year puts on all of us. Some are ones I have used, some are ones I will be instituting this year, and some I will be using in the future. If you have any great ways to reduce the amount of stress please feel free to share them with us!
This is tip is something that is still a work in progress for me but I think I am getting better at it, Delegate! On Christmas Day, if you are hosting, you will be up to your eyeballs in to do items so don't think you can take it on all by yourself. Often people ask if they can do anything but I always thought of it as an empty offer or it is just plain easier for me to do myself rather than instruct them where things are located. But there are easy things for others to help out with, whether it is bringing a dish to share, or being responsible for wrangling in all the wrapping paper, or clearing out empty bottles to the recycling bin occasionally, topping off beverages or snack platters, opening assembling and reading instructions for that must open now toy(my favorite to assign out), or simply making sure everyone has a seat. These are all jobs that are easily delegated to others and won't take more of your time to supervise than it would be to do yourself. So give those people you are feeding and entertaining a job to do while you work away (and hopefully it will free up some of your time to enjoy everyone too).
I suck at this. I need to be better.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I really have to work on too, I am getting better but still need some work.
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