Substitutions….less is more

Throughout the holiday season, it’s been said that women add over 100 tasks to their already-tight schedule….cards, baking, shopping, gift-wrapping, etc.  The last couple of years I’ve reassessed a bit and realized that something doing less–or substituting one activity for the other–actually heightens my enjoyment of the holidays.  Rather than baking more goodies (with the real possibility of adding inches to our waistlines), I’m taking time to read some classic Christmas literature.  I’ve changed my idea of gift-giving:  several friends and I have stopped gift-exchanges (often a relief!) and our family now gives to charities rather than to one another.  (We all have enough while others struggle just to survive.).   Rather than hurrying, I am trying to intentionally slow down….talking to the grocery check-out, paying it forward in a Starbucks’ line, having a cup of tea with my husband.  What will I read this year?  Think it might be Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” or my favorite, “Gift of the Magi.”  And maybe sip some tea.