There is a mouse in our house. Unfortunately, I am not talking about a cute Christmas book we all need to buy the children in our lives. Nor am I channeling Dr. Seuss with this post.
There is an actual mouse somewhere in our house.
I guess this is what happens when you buy a home that is over a hundred years old. There are cracks where a mouse (I am hoping it is only one), can get in. And now, in the middle of the Christmas season, Tony and I are trying to figure out which cracks it’s using to find it’s way into our kitchen.
On two separate mornings, I’ve gone down to make breakfast only to have it scurry by. Once it disappeared under our stove. The other, it ran through a gap in our cellar door. We’re narrowing down its entrance and exit strategies. But still,
There’s a mouse in our house.
It’s one of those annoying, real life things that you don’t want to happen, but they do. The situations that take up time we don’t have. Or at least, time we would like to spend doing something else. Things we don’t want to happen at Christmas. Like,
Your stove going out right before cookie baking.
Your furnace blowing, when you’re about to have a Christmas party.
Someone in your house getting Covid, when you all had so many plans.
Some years, December rolls around and it feels like nothing goes the way we want. We long to spend time with the people we love, but we are sick. We were looking forward to meeting up with friends for a Christmas party, but a big project came up at work. We had the perfect present idea for our family, but it’s backordered until March.
We want to get in the Christmas spirit, but we feel thwarted at every turn.
When this happens, Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas. When we’re not with the people we love, our traditions can’t be kept, or worse, when we feel too busy to do anything celebratory—there’s a heaviness that descends. We feel like the Grinch, only like the people of Whoville, we begin to wonder if one of our most beloved holidays can be saved.
We feel like the grinch, only like the people of Whoville, we begin to wonder if one of our most beloved holidays can be saved.
The good news is, it can be. Like in any season or situation in life where things don’t go to plan, there is always so much good still to be found. The secret to salvaging Christmas from the graveyard of our broken holiday plans, is to look for small moments of magic and joy.
Over the years, for us this has looked like taking short drives at night to look at Christmas lights. Tweaking our holiday traditions with friends so that we can still get together even if we had to cancel our original plan. And, when we haven’t been able to go home to see our out-of-state family, we’ve made special holiday meals for just the two of us.
For many of us, some of our most favorite childhood memories occurred at Christmas. And year after year, we try to recreate those memories for our loved ones, and ourselves.
Christmas is probably the most nostalgic holiday we celebrate. For many of us, some of our most favorite childhood memories occurred at Christmas. And year after year, we try to recreate those memories for our loved ones, and ourselves. Only some years, it’s just not possible. We need to look for what’s doable instead.
Next week, I will share my Unexpected Christmas Bucket List—a list of simple things to help us still enjoy the season in the midst of all the real life things that keep happening. But in the meantime:
What annoying real life things are happening to you this season?
Where can you find small pockets of magic and joy in your life this week?
Friends, there are so many things we wish we had control over right now, but don’t. What we do have control over though is navigating this time as healthily as possible. Join me on this journey, and for more tools and content on how to do so, subscribe to my email list . If you do, you’ll receive my Five Ways to Declutter Your Mind PDF for free!
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
