I recently took a trip to beautiful, sunny Florida.  When I made plans in September it sounded like such a good idea; warm, bright weather and leaving the dark rainy days of December behind for a week.  Reality is it can be pretty stressful to come home to a long list and 10 days of houseguests soon coming and going through the door.

I like to plan ahead and am most happy when I feel I know what I need to do, what the schedule is going to be and have a clear plan.  Life doesn’t work that way though, does it?  By the time the sunglasses were packed and on the way to the airport I had crossed many Christmas to-do’s off my list.  But not because I had completed them. I crossed them off because they just weren’t as important as enjoying relaxing days at the beach.  I crossed them off because time with people are more important than fancy food, lights strung to the rooftop and giving handmade gifts.

As the emails came in and Honey let me know we were having more family arrive than planned and a day earlier than planned, I shrugged my shoulders and said, “ok, we can make that work.” I used to have to re-center my attitude by whispering to myself, ‘I am flexible, I am flexible, I am flexible.’ It has become a personal mantra over the years.  People are more important than fancy food, lights strung to the rooftop and giving handmade gifts.  I can let the plans change and enjoy life or I can stress that things are not going my way.

So there might be a gift or two given in February when I get the project done and if you are expecting a Christmas card from our family this year, it isn’t coming. By being flexible & open to plans changing, my dining room table was filled last night with family and laughs and conversation as we passed the salad and soup. And isn’t that more important than anything else on the list?