Christmas

Every year I struggle with getting through the Christmas season.  It seems like there is so much to do, and never enough time to do it.  But I used to mock the people who started their shopping in July or did their decorating in November - I thought that doing Christmas things outside of December was inappropriate.  I mean, I don't even know why I thought that.  It seems ridiculous now.  I've come to realize that starting early may be the only way to get everything done without having a mental breakdown.

This year, I vowed to start early, and I did.  At the end of October, I began diligently shopping for gifts and mentally prepared myself for the tasks I needed to get done.  And I really did work at it.  Normally, I'm a huge procrastinator, but I didn't procrastinate about anything.  And when December arrived, I felt really good about where I was.  My Christmas cards were ordered, I had already made some gifts and I had all the supplies for the gifts I still wanted to make, all my shopping was done, we had the tree, I had done some decorating in the house, and I had a plan to accomplish all the remaining things on my to-do list that seemed very manageable.

And up until a few days before Christmas, I was feeling pretty proud of myself.  I had only a few gifts left to wrap and then the cooking/baking for Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Yay for me!

But then I ran out of gas and motivation.  By the time Christmas Eve arrived, I still hadn't wrapped three gifts, and the thought of actually going through Christmas was a little unappealing.  All I could think was that it would be so nice if I could take a break from Christmas for a couple of weeks.  (It's possible that I started repeating the line from The Grinch - "I must stop Christmas from coming.  But how?)  My husband said that I must only have so much Christmas in me, and I had run out - LOL!

Which kind of sucked.  I do love Christmas, and I had really been looking forward to enjoying the time this year.  But in the end, I felt sort of bleh.  And I overdid the whole cooking and baking thing too.  I spent too much time in the kitchen and not enough just sitting in front of the tree and enjoying the day.  So lesson learned, I guess.  Starting early has its benefits, but I can't keep steadily doing Christmas stuff for eight weeks.  

I'll have to come up with a new plan for next year that somehow involves starting early but also leaves room for me to take a break.  I'm curious to know how you get through the season.  Do you start early?  Do you reduce the number of things you do?  Do you procrastinate and then give one big effort a few days before Christmas?

I will say that the one fun thing about Christmas was seeing Gemma's face as she opened her horse-related presents.  She had one thing in particular that she desperately wanted - a leather halter with yellow padding and nameplates for Freya and the name of the farm we board at.  Of course, as far as I could tell, leather halters with yellow padding are not something that is widely available, so I got in touch with Taylored Tack, which made all my endurance tack for Nimo.  Amanda Taylor, who makes the tack, is delightful to work with and does high-quality work, so I didn't hesitate to order a synthetic halter in a leather color with yellow padding.  I ordered nameplates separately and put them on myself (actually not as easy as it looks...).  The halter turned out great and Gemma loves it!

I also got Gemma a custom cooler for Freya.  (We've been using an old one of Nimo's, which fits Freya surprisingly well.  Her blanket size is 80/81, and Nimo's was 84.  But I knew Gemma would want her own stuff.)  Her favorite color is yellow right now with green being her second favorite.  (She has all the colors ranked in order - lol!).  But she still loves rainbow colors too.  So I worked with HeatherWearHorse to put together a lovely fleece cooler with rainbow fabric, yellow fabric, and green trim.

A friend got her a Horse Bums saddle bag (yellow of course, but with peacock fabric trim and a purple zipper) and her mother-in-law got her one of the Weatherbeeta ombre saddle pads.  And Santa brought her a rainbow browband for Star's bridle.  So I hiked with Gemma and Star out on some trails at the barn so Gemma could try out all that new stuff too.  

 

It was a bittersweet day for me.  The temperature got up to 72 degrees, so it was an absolutely beautiful day, and the trails were new - the barn has been putting them in over the last few months.  And I was so happy that Gemma had a great horse to ride.  But I really missed Nimo as I walked the trails on foot.  (Freya is fighting a hoof infection, and was a little sore, so we aren't working her under saddle right now.  More on that next week.)  I imagined how much fun it would have been to be out there riding him with Gemma, and it was hard. 

I think the longer we live, the more Christmas has a tendency to accumulate a mixture of memories, good and bad.  I am super thankful for all the wonderful things in my life, but it does still feel like there is a hole where Nimo used to be.

Anyway, I hope that if you celebrate Christmas, you had a good one:)

Do not let this sweet face fool you - I had just dragged her out of the tree, which she had tried to climb into, and she tried to chew on the ornaments too.  (eye roll)