Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Don't Stress Be Blessed

This holiday season I challenge each and every one of you to adopt the motto "Don't be stressed, just feel blessed!".

We all get so worried about having the right tablecloth and the perfect turkey. I am just as guilty as the next person when it comes to assuming that the holiday looking perfect will make the holiday perfect.

But as I grow older and wiser I realize that I don't remember very many perfect holidays. I am sure there are some that turned out great but the ones I remember and smile about are the ones that weren't so perfect but were full of laughter.

When my kids were two and four I hosted my husbands family for Thanksgiving. Everything was going great until I ended up with my outfit drenched in turkey gravy. Perfect looking holiday? Not so much. I ended up changing out of my dress clothes and into a t-shirt. Being a stay at home mom at the time the outfit I was wearing was most likely my only decent holiday choice.

The blessing that came that gravy drenched holiday was that Steve's brother Bob was there with all his cousins. We didn't know it at the time but Bob would die of cancer within the year.
We all have those crazy holiday stories. The time my friend Jennifer's mom tried to cook a turkey in a paper bag and it caught on fire. Another friend talked about the time they left the ham in the oven and didn't realize it until they finished the meal.

So make this the year for turkey with no worry. Don't scrub every surface of your house. Grab an old box of pictures for everyone to enjoy while they are there. Be in the moment and make some memories.

If you have some crazy Thanksgiving memories to share, please do so. Laughter is the main ingredient in the recipe for a stress free holiday.

1 comment:

Jim said...

I have a funny memory of Thanksgiving. It was on a Thursday (oh, yeah, it always is), about 10 years ago. A friend was cooking the bird in his smoker. Me and some friends, when he was busy in the kitchen, replaced the bird in the smoker with a fully burnt, charred, dried up bird. When he came out to check it, the look on his face was as priceless as if you had just found yourself on stage in front of 30,000 fans and your pants fell down and you had woman's underwear on.

Thanks to all my friends and family that support me each and every day. God knows I need support. Love you all.