The Spirit of Christmas

Every year I tell myself that I am going to reduce the Christmas madness and focus more on the true spirit of Christmas and teach my children what is truly important, and every year I find myself totally disregarding my previous years commitment to do so. I will say that I am making more of an effort to do little things that make a difference, like not getting infuriated with the holiday traffic, longer lines in the stores, cranky customers, etc. I am trying to let it roll off my back. It takes a lot of effort, but it definitely helps. In my case, having two December birthdays does not reduce the load, but I am finally realizing that it is more about attitude than ambiance. If I am stressed, my kids are whiny and demanding, but if I just let go of some things and have a good time, things are happier in general. These are perhaps not the most profound ideas. In fact, they are probably some of the most rehearsed, but they are true. I am putting this out while I had a long list of errands to run in the ever decreasing time before Mark's birthday party and holiday shipping and I am stuck waiting for a vague 4 hour time frame for the oven repair man. The holidays are not a time to have your oven break and apparently, repairmen could care a less that it is important to get it fixed quickly. I have already been waiting for two weeks and have no true hopes of it getting repaired today. Also, right around Thanksgiving we had our camera die (at the end ot the Gettysburg trip), our printer break, and our oven crash. That is our three, I hope. What was that I was saying about letting things roll off my back?