And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down...

...and swallowed me up whole

except the rain is Christmas

and instead of eating me it's totally consumed EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE!

not a horribly bad thing mind you

but...a very time consuming thing

My family and I are hosting Christmas this year - which we have never done (stress!)

We are total homebody introverts who hardly ever have company over and now 4 other full human adults will be in our house for an entire day (stress!)

We need to cook (stress!)
Clean (stress!)
And holidayfy ALL THE THINGS (stress! stress! stress)

And you know, still do things like work full time, shower ourselves, eat meals occasionally, pay bills and live as an adult like life as possible (which on a good day...is usually not very adult like ;)

I had lots of plans for blogging this month - I was going to schedule the hell out of posts! Tweet and Instagram like a superstar! Reply to emails immediately!

and well

my plans kicked me in the arse

December is one of my favorite months because Christmas for me means family - and cutting down a tree, and decorating, and listening to music, and baking and candy and advent calendars and all the silly and wonderful family traditions and I love it all!

And those previously mentioned plans? They didn't really leave room for all the December things I really wanted to do.

And not blogging regularly? It was causing stress! Which is a big big no no in my new outlook on blogging.

So you know what? I'm giving myself a break. I'm saying it's ok to not blog or engage much on social media this month because IT IS OK.

I might be gone until next year. Or I might find myself with free time and be coherent enough to review something in the next couple of weeks.

In any case though, I'm not going to worry (stress!) about it. I'm going to enjoy all the wonderful things in my life as much as I can.

If you're made it this far I thank you and I hope your December is as stress free as it can be. And if it isn't? I'm officially giving you permission to ease up on yourself. You're doing your best and your best is always good enough.

I also wish you and yours a happy, safe December and holiday season!

Thanks for listening :)