Under The Library Lamp

Have we reached the part of the holiday season where we are crossing items off our lists simply because we have run out of time to do them? Every single blessed year, I overplan, overschedule, and underestimate how long everything will take. Even when I tell myself I am aiming for a low-key approach, I manage to put far too much on my list. 

Do I have time to do 25 days of day drinking and crafting? Honestly? I started in October and I am still down to the wire on one last video. I had an entire year to write 25 Christmas blog entries, and somehow I am behind again. I was ahead for a while. I had entries prescheduled. And then suddenly… here we are.

In light of the limited time left in the holiday season, and the sheer number of activities still competing for space, I want to share one of my mom’s best pieces of holiday advice. Like many people, my mom was a list maker. Things to do. Things to get. Things to remember. At the end of every day, it mattered that you looked at the list and crossed items off.

Here is the secret, and the most important part of her system. Every day, you cross things off the list. Even if you did not accomplish the task. You make a decision. It is not getting done, and you cross it off anyway.

So far this holiday season, I have crossed off gifting all of the decorations from my day drinking and crafting videos to friends. I have crossed off multiple menu items, even though I really did want to eat them.

Crossing something off without doing it is not failure. It is an act of clarity. It is choosing what matters most with the time and energy you actually have, not the version of yourself you imagined back in October. The list does not get to decide your worth, and the holidays do not require completion to be meaningful. Sometimes the most generous thing we can do is let an item go, draw a line through it, and move on lighter than we were before.