This Christmas Was Different

This Christmas was dramatically different than most Christmases I've experienced.

It started long before Christmas, actually.

In the past, I've always strived to finish my shopping prior to Thanksgiving, mainly to avoid the craziness of traffic and crowded shopping centers.

This year, we traveled to New Orleans for a week and a half at Thanksgiving time, so I was focused on that experience, not thinking about Christmas shopping. In fact, I did quite a bit of last-minute shopping, and I was still finishing up even on Christmas Eve.

In the past, I'd spend months Christmas shopping, catching sales and looking for deals. On my side of the family, we have a $10-15 limit per person, and I would scour the bargains, trying to get each person the most possible gift while staying within the limit

This year, since I had waiting until pretty much the last minute to shop, I allowed inspiration to guide me (much like Fluent Writing) in selecting a gift for each person, and then shopping online or allowing myself to be guided to a particular store or website to make purchases. And I didn't much bother with the $15 limit -- I just bought what I knew the person would love, without worrying about the price. (Have you ever shopped without looking at prices? It's very liberating!!)

In the past, I stood in line forever with all the other schmucks at the post office, waiting to mail my out of town gifts.

This year, hubby bought all our postage online and we walked into the post office, walked right past the long line, handed the packages to the clerk at the counter, and walked right out. Hooray! Definitely the way to go.

In the past, we considered ourselves 'lucky' if it was cold enough on Christmas to wear a sweater -- in New Orleans, the temperature rarely drops below freezing, and most Christmas days are cool and sunny.

This year, we had our first White Christmas, with about a foot of snow. Fortunately, we had nowhere to go, so we sang "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

In the past, I've always (with the exception of last year, with newborn Sydney on our hands) spent Christmas with my family in New Orleans.

This year, we enjoyed the jubliation of our 4 year old and 1 year old opening presents from Santa, Mom & Dad, and our out of town relatives. Then we had some friends over (good thing they are also neighbors -- they had only 2 blocks to travel in all this snow) for games, movies, and food, food, food.

Was it all this that helped me stay in the Christmas spirit all season? Or was it something else?

Hard to say, with as much work as I've done on myself this past year.

But perhaps the most impactful thing I experienced about this year's Christmas was something I didn't notice until today -- the day after Christmas.

I didn't experience a big let-down.

In the past, once Christmas was "over" -- once we had left my parent's house, or the family and friends had all gone home, all the presents opened, no more "Christmas Story" running on TNT, and all the radio stations had returned to their regularly scheduled programming, I used to feel a little sad. A little disappointed that after all the hype, Christmas had come and gone.

This year, there was none of that. Just a mellow easy feeling, a deep satisfaction that seemed to have nothing to do with Christmas at all.

Mmmmmmm, now THAT's what I call a holiday to remember.

QoD: Did you feel a let-down after Christmas ended? What do you think is at the cause of that? What would have to shift for you to avoid that kind of experience next year, to create a more sustained contentment?

Whatever it is, go for it.

We'll be talking about goals and resolutions in the next week or two -- stay tuned!