EP 63: Creating the Holiday Season YOU Want Revisited

So as I'm recording this, it's Tuesday evening. Um, my good friend Luke, who produces the podcast for he kindly reminded me that I had not recorded an intro for today's episode yet. And you know, I can't have you guys listening to a podcast episode without without a timely introduction. And yeah, so this is actually kind of fun because I'm recording this the day before it airs, so I can give you a couple of you know, real time updates. James is eight weeks old. Life is crazy. Yes, life is definitely pretty crazy right now, but we are surviving. Okay, let's see here. Ellie turns two on the sixteenth, so that's in just like a week and a half. Last year, we had a really big party for her, which was so much fun. I won't get into that. But this year we're going to do something much more low key for her. It'll just be our family, and are really close family friends. So gosh, yeah, that'll be soon. And it's it's the holiday season. It is right like we're smack dab in it right now. And to be honest, this holiday season in particular has been one that I've been looking forward to probably since like summertime ish, and I always do get excited for this season, but this year I've just been extra excited about it. And I don't I don't really know exactly why, Probably because I knew that, you know, James would be here and and I would just get a holiday season with a new born. And I have so many fond memories of Christmas time two years ago with eleanor being a newborn. And yeah, it's just a fun time of year in general. And you know, we we always do a lot of fun things this time of year. I'm sure you feel similarly, so just puts the festive things going on, you know, white elephant parties, Christmas lights, big family dinners, picking out presents for your family and friends, and just all of that stuff are all things that I enjoy so much, you know, even even small things like Oakley and I have Christmas lights up in our living room, um all on the mantel and our built ins, and it's just just so warm and cozy in that room and I just love it so much. I love it so much. And you know, so from those small things too, to the bigger things that we do, like I have some um girls Christmas lunches that I'll be going to and some some Christmas dinners obviously some Christmas parties, And there's so much going on this time of year, and it really is so fun. But I will say it can also be pretty overwhelming, which is part of the reason why I wanted to re share, re air, re release, whatever you want to call it, an episode that I aired this time last year, okay, because the message in this episode is still so relevant. It's relevant every holiday season. It's all about creating the holiday season that you want, a holiday season that fills you up and makes you happy. Okay, so I am excited for you to be able to, you know, listen to this message again. And before the episode actually starts rolling, I do want to tell you that I have a little gift for you, an early an early present for you to open. It's called the Wasted Time Guide. You can download it from my Instagram bio. Essentially, I've taken one of the most popular exercises that I work on with my clients and I have put it in a worksheet form for you, and it's free and it's just my little gift to you, so I hope you enjoy it. I'll also put a link to it in the show notes here. So yeah, without further ado, here is the episode on creating the Holiday season that you want.

Welcome back to the Think Happy Podcast. I am your host, Kaitlin Cuevas and today I am recording this episode at home. So I'm sitting in the room that's just off of my kitchen on the sofa with chris as pillows all around me. Have a Christmas candle, but I couldn't find the lighter, so I only know how to use like those long neck lighters, and we only have one in the house and I can't find it. So I have a Christmas candle but it is not lit. But I do have a Christmas mug filled with coffee. So that's that's what's going on here. That's what's going on here. It is the week of Christmas. Like, oh geez, this is just this year is going by so fast. Yeah, so Christmas is literally just a few days away. I have so much that I still need to do. You guys, like, I honestly feel like I'm only halfway through my shopping. I have not even started to wrap. I actually got like super overwhelmed yesterday thinking about just everything that I still have to do. And that feeling of overwhelmed actually inspired today's episode. But we'll get to that, in a little bit. So Christmas, yeah, my honestly, I know that it's so cheesy, but Christmas really is one of my absolute favorite times of the year, and my family we just have so many fun traditions. Definitely my favorite is Christmas morning. My mom just makes it so magical and like Santa still one hundred and ten exists in the Dunlap family and if you believe, you receive and it's just really as simple as that. So, Christmas morning is so fun. Oakley and I will take Ellie and Guppy over to my parents house first thing in the morning on Christmas Day and we will spend hours opening presents. So, the way that we do it is like each present is opened one at a time, and my mom is the one who like distributes the present and it's just so fun because it's slow, we take it all in. everyone sees what each other is getting, and it's just as much fun. If actually, no, I'm going to take that back. I think it's more fun watching your family, my family members opened the presence that I have picked out for them than being the one opening the presents. But definitely when I was a kid, like, it was way more fun opening the presents. But you know, back when I was a kid. So, yeah, we literally take like coffee breaks and bathroom breaks because it just like it takes a couple of hours, but it's so much fun. And we this year will go to mass um at the church that's closest to me in Oakley's house, and then we'll come back here for dinner on Christmas Eve, but with my family with some of our family friends. Also, we'll play white Elephant. I think that we're going to be making enchiladas for dinner, so that will be super delicious. And then everyone will go home, we'll go to sleep, Santa will come and yeah, we'll wake up on Christmas morning and we'll probably open some stockings here at my house with just Oakley, Me and Ellie, and then we'll load up the car and head to my parents house, which is just like twenty or thirty minutes away. So yeah, that's what we'll be doing. And I can't believe it's just so. I'm recording this episode on Sunday the nineteenth, so one to three, four or five. Yeah, that's six days until Christmas., the day that this episode is released, it'll be just three days until Christmas, So buckle up, you guys. Right after Christmas will almost immediately transition to prepping for the new year.

I have a challenge that I wanted to tell you guys about that is going to be perfect for that time of year. So let me tell you a little bit about the be the Best You thirty day challenge. Does any of this sound or field familiar to you I have failed to start the new year off on the right foot time and time again. Or I want to eat healthy foods, but by myself in a rush and making convenient yet unhealthy decisions. Or I want to get back to exercising, but I feel like I don't have the time or the energy. What about I mindlessly scrull social media and sometimes the posts I see leave me feeling not good enough. And lastly, maybe this one will hit home. I have a little or no time for myself. I feel drained, tired, and down, and I don't want to feel this way. If you answered yes to any of those, don't even think about fast forwarding through this part of the episode. Okay, insert the Be the Best You thirty day Challenge. So guys, this challenge is going to start on January tent and each week of the challenge, we're going to be tackling a different theme. that's gonna help you be the best you and just set your two up for success. So week one we're gonna be covering intentional eating, Week two, intentional movement, Week three, intentional me time, and then week four being intentional on social media. And throughout the thirty days, members of the Challenge are going to have access to a weekly self paced video that's going to be teaching about that week's theme. UM. So that video will be prerecorded and members are going to be able to just you know, watch it on their own time. We're also going to have a weekly live zoom call with myself and the other Challenge members. This will be a great time for members to ask questions, game clarity, the community with each other. And speaking of building community, there's also going to be um Or. Members will also receive on glow ongoing member ship to the Private Think Happy Facebook community which I am engaging in daily, so you guys can just continue to bounce ideas off of each other. They're just receive daily encouragement and like I said, continue to build community. And then finally, the Challenge members will also receive a thirty day calendar with daily challenges just encouraging you to be the best you you guys. So this is really really going to be filled with so much good stuff. It's going to be not only a great way to start off January, but a great way to start off your whole year, just setting yourself up for success. So the investment to join this challenge is seventy four dollars, literally less than twenty dollars a week, you guys, and I just want to remind you that you have been getting getting getting to everyone around you, especially this time of year, and it's time to give back to yourself. This super small investment is going to get you excited and energized about the new year, and I want it to be your intentional step towards your personal growth and well being. So are you ready to set yourself up for success not only for January but all of two I hope you answered yes, And if you did, go to thinkhappyco.com/30daychallenge or you can also just head to the link in my Instagram bio um that will take you to the challenge as well. Okay, so that is the Be the Best You thirty day Challenge, the whole four one one. I am clearly super excited about it, um, and I'm excited for you to be excited about a stick Aaron Conduran is my go to for planners, stickers, and other organization accessories. And can I tell you something cool? Think Happy is officially an Aaron conjured affiliate. That means when you shop Aaron Condran via the think Happy link, this podcast benefits by receiving a small commission from your purchase. You can shop my Aaron Conjured favorites via the link in my Instagram bio or on thinkhappyco.com under the shop category. Thank you for supporting the Think Happy podcast.

In Happy planning for today's episode, I had been planning on doing a deep dive into the five signature pillar four Think Happies five signature pillars, But like I had mentioned earlier, in this episode, I was actually inspired yesterday just by like my feelings of overwhelm around the holiday season to talk to you guys about something a little different. And you know, the next solo episode we'll dive into pillar number five, which is setting and achieving attainable goals. But for now, I just want to have a chat about this time of year, this holiday season. And I don't have a script for this. Um. All of this is really just like coming from my heart. I feel like it's important to have this conversation and I want to encourage you guys, because yesterday I was needing encouragement. But yeah, so let's talk about this. So in December, especially probably actually starting towards the end of November leading into just starting this holiday season. I feel like it's a time of year where we crave calmness and peace and serenity, and I feel like we have visions of ourselves just curled up on the sofa and drinking hot chocolate or drinking a glass of wine and just spending time with your family and um, just being a little more chill. But I have found that in reality, we do the opposite of just chill. Like we load up our calendars and we have all these Christmas parties and all of these get togethers with friends and all these get togethers with families, and we have to like buy all of these presents, and we have to prepare menus, and we have to cook food, and we're cleaning up after all of that, and we're wrapping presents and we're planning what we're buying for other people. And for me this year, um, it really got to me. And I think it was a combination of a couple of things. So, yes, just the stress of constantly going not having downtime. I also think so as a lot of you guys, know, we just celebrated Ellie's first birthday, which was December sixteen, So on top of the holidays, this was really the first year that I also had her birthday to plan for and to prepare for. We had a party at our health to celebrate it. So I was planning that party and uh, just the emotional side of so celebrating her first birthday, you know, like that's a huge milestone. I was so excited, but also part of me was not sad, but I guess a little sad that you know, she's never going to be a little baby again. And I was just reminiscing and feeling so nostalgic and just scrolling back through all these pictures of when we first um brought her home from the hospital, and you know, just this time last year with her, and it made me miss those those times, you know. And I'm not saying that in a way where like I'm sad that we're in the stage that we are now with her, because that is just not the case at all. But I am saying it as like it was for me. It was just like an extra layer added on top of this already stressful holiday season, right, So I have a feeling that I am not the only one who feels like I'm creating peace and calm this time of year, but actually I'm doing quite the opposite. So that's that's the point of this episode.

So let's talk about what we can do about that. If you are finding yourself feeling just like so drained this time of year, I want you to know that it's not just you. You're not doing the holidays wrong. You're not like, it's not it's okay, is what I'm trying to say. It's okay. If that is how you're feeling, probably the majority of people around you are feeling it too. But just because it's normal to feel that way doesn't mean that we shouldn't I to do something about it, right because we still have these visions of the holiday season being filled with I mean, I keep going back to saying the same words. It's because that's like, really what I'm feeling right now. We want them to be calm and peaceful and um So I want us, and I'm including myself and this, I want us to do something to help us actually have or actually fulfill those visions of what we want the holiday seasons to be. So I think that the best way to do this is, and this is something that I talked about a lot um on Think Happy is I want us to start being extra intentional with our time. Okay, So for me, one way that I have been working on doing that just in the past few days is getting back into the habit of having my morning me time. So that morning time. I'm still I've still been waking up early and um having like a lone time in the mornings before Oaky gets up and before Ellie gets up, but I had started using that time to start working, and I was I had gotten away from doing my devotionals, I had gotten away from just spending time with my journal. And I realized that actually last week on Instagram stories, when I was talking about reflecting on I really realized during those reflections that I had kind of dropped my mean time. I had dropped starting my morning off with like figuratively filling my own up. I was diving straight into work and not having any time to fill myself up, you know, like doing my devotional That is such a good way. I love starting my day with that. Writing in my journal. I love starting my day with that, and I just had really gotten away from that practice. So for me, especially this time of year, I am being intentional about creating that time for myself again. Okay, It's so simple, it's really basic, and it's the foundation for my day. It's the foundation of what I feel like leads to happiness in our lives, leads to setting our days up for success. Um. So I am being intentional with going back to that meat time. Okay. Other ways that we could be intentional with our time is um, just with the actual time that Like what am I trying to say here? What I'm trying to say is like when I look at my calendar this time of year, it is so jam packed. Okay, I feel like that is not me being intentional with my time because I know myself and while I love I thrive in social situations. Once I hit like once i've been doing that too much, I really start crashing and it leads to having more anxiety, and it just leads to me starting to dread um social engagements. And I got to that point yesterday. I was driving in my car and I had a busy day in front of me, and my anxiety got so bad that I actually thought I was going to have to pull off and stop driving. I worked through it, and you know that I came home and I took a nap and thankfully Ellie wasn't in the car with me. But the whole I know that what led to that anxiety was just that I had been going NonStop and just not having much time at home with just me and my little family, and that really starts to wear on me. And the thing is, it seems so like counterintuitive almost because I thoroughly look forward to all of the social things that I have going on in December, Like I love hanging out with the friends who I hang out with this time of year, I love hanging out with my family. And even though I love that stuff so much, I still need to remember that, like I, it gets to a point for me where it's just too much. And that leads me to the second point that I wanted to talk to you about today, with what we can do about these feelings of overwhelm and just go go going NonStop during this time of year, and that is I want to remind you and I want to remind myself also that it's okay to say no, Okay, I'm gonna say that again, because it's hard for me to remember this. It's okay to say no. So what do I mean by that? You don't have to say yes to every single thing that you're invited to go to. You can say no. You don't have to go to every happy hour, you don't have to go to every dinner, you don't have to go to every party, you don't have to go to every white elephant. You can say no. This is your holiday season just as much as it's anyone else's personal holiday season, right, And if there's someone in your life who doesn't understand you needing to take a break and get rejuvenated just with some time at home, um, then shame on them. I'm sorry for saying it like that, but everyone deserves that time, especially during this holiday season, y'all. Like we want to start the new year feeling strong and rejuvenated it and just ready to kick booty going into a new year. And if we run ourselves completely dry in December, it's gonna take time to fill yourself back up starting in January, to fill yourself up enough to the point where you can start like hitting the ground running. Right. So I'm gonna end this episode just by leaving you with some encouragement. This is your holiday season. Do with it what you want to do. Okay. If that means go, go going, then more power to you. Do it. If that fills you up, if that rejuvenates you, then do it. But if it doesn't fill you up, if it takes more out of you, then then it's worth Then that's okay too. Okay, take some time for calmness, take some time as much time as you need to do nothing, to sit on the sofa, to make that vision a reality of having your fireplace going and being curled up with Christmas pillows all around you and a glass of wine in your hand. And I just want you to have the holiday season that you want. And I want you to remember that you're the one that's going to create the holiday season that you want. Right that ball is in New York Court. My ball to create the holiday season I want in my court. And I was reminded of that yesterday when my anxiety got so bad, and it really just reminded me like, Okay, Kaitlin this is my December. I don't want the reat the second half of my December to feel like this. So I need to do something about it, right that I need to do that for me, and that's what I'm gonna do tonight. I'm gonna stay home. I I'm going to turn on a Christmas movie after Ellie goes to bed, actually probably before Elie goes to bed. I'm gonna pour some wine and I'm gonna drink wine with Oakley. I'm gonna play on the floor with Ellie, and I'm just gonna do my best to not get stressed out thinking of, you know, all of the Christmas shopping that I still have to do, because I know that I'm going to be able to get it done right. There's always time that you can create to get those things done, and it's it's just being intentional. It's about creating that time and using the time that you have in your days wisely. But Okay, I kind of feel like i'm rambling now. So what we've talked about today is it's normal to feel like your go go going NonStop, so hectic, stressed this time of year. And if you're craving holiday season that's calm and peaceful, then I want that for you and you're going to have to create that for you, right, So, how are you going to do that. The first thing we talked about was becoming extra intentional with your time. The second thing we talked about was it's okay to say no. You don't have to say yes to everything. So you guys, with that being said, I'm just going to close out this episode.

Happy holidays, you guys, Merry Christmas. I hope you create the holiday season that you want this year. And I just love you guys, and think for being here. I'll talk to you all next week. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for joining me for this week's episode of the Think Happy Podcast. If you just can't get enough, find me on Instagram at think Happy Underscore Co. That's CO, and online at thinkhappyco.com. See you next week.