I was reading some posts on my Mums board the other day about how this time of year people get very 'stressed' about all of the things that they have to get done.  Someone said that 25 years ago, this would just be considered 'busy'.  Although I agree to a certain extent that we seem to find things more stressful these days, I also think that we try and take on SO many things at once that we can't help but be stressed.

Although it is no longer expected that you do all of these things there is still our own values and ideals that lead us to strive to be the perfect wife/mother/housekeeper/boss/employee/teacher/Christian/friend and the list goes on. 

My husband calls me a martyr.  I'll stay up late to settle the baby, get up with her during the night and then instead of taking his offer to wake him up in the morning to get the boys ready for school, I get up and do it.  You wanna know something?  It isn't because I am a martyr, it's because he doesn't do things to my expectations.  I am a perfectionist unfortunately.  The sad thing is I am a perfectionist with a tendancy toward laziness so I really do set myself up for failure and added stress!!

I have come to realise that I have to let it go.  Who cares if the kids go to school with biscuits instead of an apple some days.  Or if the washing is more wrinkled because he stuffs the dryer as full as it can handle (we have small dryers over here!)

So this leads me back to our increased Christmas stress.  I think we try and achieve SO much around Christmas (and try to do it all on our own because we somehow should) that we set ourselves up for the added stress.  So this year I am going to deal with the not-immaculately-wrapped presents, the too-lumpy gravy and the too-smooth cranberry sauce and the not-perfectly-cut icing stars that will decorate our Christmas cake.  Because this year I am going to attempt a less-stress, more-joy Christmas.