I love this group! Can you imagine the kind of looks we would get if we started talking like this around "normal" people? It is definitely their loss!
Lately, I have been thinking about past Christmases. I have been trying to figure out how things work (or don't work for me). In the past, I have often tried to change the nature of "time" in December, by trying to squeeze 18-hours a day of "Christmas stuff" into a normal 24-hour day. I have done this by trying to squeeze all the required things for a "normal" day into 20 or 30 minutes of frantic "catch-up action." Of course, "sleep" was squeezed down to 2 or 3 hours a night, or whatever time was "left over" each day.
The results were -- (1) the house fell apart and became messy and horrible to be in. (2) I got really tired and cranky and (3) lots of important things got missed because there "just wasn't time" to do them.
Since I don't like summer, I can concentrate on #1 during summer. It really bothers me and everyone else when the house falls apart. "Clutter" is just waiting to burst out and explode all over everything during times of stress. Getting rid of big trash bags full of clutter is a summer treat for me. I turn my prissy "I don't like" attitude on my clutter, smack it silly, and throw it into the big black trash bag. Then i take it outside, hurl its ugly self into a big trash can, run inside, jump into the shower, and grab the remote control. (After I get out of the shower.) (We got multiple TV remotes, so my husband can have one at all times, and so can I. Our own TVs though. My personal secret for decades-long happy marriage! One TV per spouse.)
ANYTHING I can do during the summer helps me to "not spoil" Christmas. Cleaning out the guest room/office (my lifetime job). Going through dishes and serving pieces. Straightening out paperwork. Etc. etc. etc. It's probably nutty, but it works for me. Whenever I am able to think about what I DO love (the time from Halloween through New Years) -- instead of what I DO NOT love (horrible heat, humidity, grey polluted skies and mosquitoes) -- I function much better. I actually hum tuneless, annoying little songs under my breath while I work. Nobody knows whether they are Christmas songs, or not.
:bigsnow: