MANAGE THE HOLIDAY STRESS
We will give you some pointers to manage the inevitable stress “during” the day of the holiday celebration.
PUT INTO ACTION
You can control only two things: your thoughts and actions. You can’t control what your in-laws say around the dinner table. You can’t control your kids’ attitudes. Write down the things that are in your control. Take ownership of these things—like buying groceries, planning the family games, or wrapping presents. Everything else that’s not in your control, like the weather or other people’s reactions to overbaked potatoes, can be let go. There’s nothing you can do about them, so set those expectations down by focusing on your responsibilities.
Don’t get so wrapped up in the stressful parts of the holiday season that you forget to have fun! Play Christmas “Heads Up” Write the name of classic Christmas characters on sticky notes and have each player paste one to their forehead without looking at what it says. Then, everyone has to help each other guess whose name is on their heads without saying the word. It’s a guaranteed laugh fest!
Therefore the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (‘God is with us’). -Isaiah 7:14