maintaining sanity

Now that the whirlwind that was the last two weeks of my life has died down a bit, I can get back to this ridiculous blogging phase.

The last half of December was wonderfully filled up with people, trips, and parties (and a surprisingly small amount of time at work). It felt surreal. Carefree. Honestly though, it could have been a trainwreck.

The holidays have a two-sided reputation. They're either portrayed as this magical, sparkly time of family-bonding, cookie-eating, carol-singing, peace-on-earth-goodwill-towards-men utopia...or they're labeled as a pseudo-apocalypse in which the entire family is alternating between frantically popping pills, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and having meltdowns before the New Year even hits.

This year, I found a good balance between those two opposing circumstances. I somehow managed to both find the time to slow down and break from my ridiculously packed schedule and also have a great time with dozens of people I love and never get to see enough of. Ultimately, I was able to run around and have an amazing time without losing my head. Looking back, there's a few key things that made this balance work:

1. I prioritized my people.

To clarify..that doesn't mean that I went through and ranked all the people I could've seen, crossing ones off the list that I didn't feel like being around. However, I knew who I absolutely HAD to see and I made sure it happened. My parents got me all to themselves for an entire six days. And they didn't even get sick of me. Favorite child? Obviously..

2. I learned to say no!

This one's difficult. So many people to see in only a couple days....it's a mathmatical nightmare trying to figure out how to add hours to a day that's already full. Plus, I definitely stayed out past my grown-up bedtime pretty much every day last week. As New Years Eve approached and I started to figure out my plans, I realized that if I spent another night up until obscene hours of the morning, there was a good chance I'd die within the first week of January. I ended up turning down invitations to 3 parties and instead stayed in for the night with two of my best friends. Not a bad way to start off 2011:)

3. I stayed spontaneous.

As I'm sure I've said before, routines and schedules make me choke a little. I don't want to end up as an uptight, deadline-obsessed, always-color-in-the-lines-or-SO-HELP-ME-GOD kind of girl. Maybe I should eventually be on time for things. Maybe not. Either way, I let myself make plans on the go a lot over the holidays, such as last night. I started at Starbucks with a bunch of friends from camp, but Sarah, Sondra, and I ended up letting Todd convince us to go to the Flipside Cafe in Bemus. He challenged us to a round of Just Dance on the Wii...which I'd  normally turn down...but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Todd ended up schooling us all.

4. I drank an unholy amount of caffeine.

If people try and tell you that caffeine's bad for you, tune them out. They clearly don't know what they're talking about. You can nod and smile if you'd like, but don't listen to all the lies pouring out of their mouth. The truth is, caffeine helps me every single day of my life. Especially during the holidays. All the sleep I never got was quickly and easily replaced by the multiple coffee drinks I consumed throughout the day.

The moral of the story is, if you follow these four steps next year, the holidays won't own you. In fact, you might even like them.