What I REALLY want for Christmas

Well, here we are just four sleeps until Christmas. As I recently said on Twitter - that count only applies if you are actually sleeping :)

We put so much pressure on ourselves to do more, buy more, be more at this time of year, don't we? Why is that? Truth be told most of us have everything we need. Friends and family ask "What do your kids/you want/need for Christmas?" in genuine hopes of fulfilling wishes. The honest answer would usually be "Nothing". Yes, maybe we could do with a new pair of slippers (mine are actually my crocs) or a new waffle iron (cause I really like waffles) or a new... wait - I can't say more in case my kids read this! But my point is we actually don't need more stuff.

What I'd really like this Christmas is the ability to slow down, unplug from technology, and just be in the moment. I'd like to watch the excitement in my son's eyes when he opens the BIG box behind the tree from his Nana instead of rushing to clean up the paper. I'd like to linger in the moment when my daughter sees the thoughtfully chosen gift from her brother. And I'd like to savour the laughter that I know is going to come when my honey opens the little-bitty box in the corner.

What I often lack is the ability to stop thinking. Stop planning. Stop evaluating. I wish I could just "be". Maybe it's a learned thing. And I'm really trying to learn it. My goal this year is to slow down and not let the little pressures get to me so much. Working at HM, you'd think I would have automatically grown more able to appreciate the little things - considering the families we meet are struggling with such heart-wrenching situations. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate small victories (mine are often associated with finishing a document or solving a process-related problem). I just wonder why all these pressures still get to me when I should be more grateful for all I have and what goes right.

So, my wish for all of us this Christmas is that we do some of the things we talk about. Hug more, smile more, worry less, slow down and be in the moment. Remember the line that says "Life isn't about the breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away". I wish you LOTS of those moments.

Merry Christmas,
Brandi