{"id":280,"date":"2014-12-21T01:52:04","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T01:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/?p=280"},"modified":"2014-12-21T01:52:37","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T01:52:37","slug":"merry-let-it-go-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Merry Let it Go Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn’t do Christmas cards. I skipped last year too.\u00a0 Last year, in my defense, I\u00a0gave birth the day after Christmas.\u00a0 This year, I could play the I have five kids<\/em> or the baby card<\/em> still.\u00a0 I did bake\u00a0both years and still have to bake more cookies, but\u00a0I spread them out on\u00a0different days. We are making the Gingerbread houses from a box as usual. Our Elf on the Shelf hasn’t been as adventurous this year. Gift cards and money have become my MO for many gifts. I don’t like stress. It’s not part of the holidays unless we keep perpetuating it. I choose to change course if I do go there in my mind.<\/p>\n

If you have a busy work schedule, lots of kids, travel often, or just have a lot on your plate…the holidays can look like a “to-do list” and not anything FUN!\u00a0 The mood in the world can be tense as well.\u00a0 The holidays bring up a lot of issues.\u00a0 If you’re unhappily single, visiting family, wanting to lose weight, feeling\u00a0like you’re wallet\u00a0is stretched, and that what did I accomplish in the past year<\/em> vibe, holidays can feel like a battlefield as well.\u00a0 All our inadequacies can be like a flashing light in our life and those damn Christmas commercials with the happy perfect families can make us feel bad on top of our own stress.\u00a0 The pressure is there.<\/p>\n

Some years I had to have perfect presents for people too…like it actually meant my value.\u00a0 Now I just do the best.\u00a0 They say you pick your battles and I think it’s all about focus as well.\u00a0 Pick your point of focus.\u00a0 Having an impeccable looking house or looking cute, I choose the cute route.\u00a0 My kids mess up the house on a regular basis anyway.\u00a0 I can really only control so much without being even more of a crazy drill sergeant I can already be sometimes.\u00a0 Life is too short for extra stress.\u00a0 I’m thinking this Let it Go Christmas<\/em> will lead to a great new year.\u00a0 2014 was great and this one will be even better\u00a0 I’ll let go of what doesn’t work best for me.<\/p>\n

Speaking of “Let it Go” which was a huge hit song from the adorable movie Frozen<\/em> which I loved.\u00a0 I even got a light aqua velvet dress and it’s such an Elsa dress because of that color.\u00a0 It reminds me of mermaids too.\u00a0 I’m\u00a0thinking it will be\u00a0a lucky dress for my book release party for Sexpot With Stretch Marks<\/em>, my first non-fiction book.\u00a0\u00a0It’s not a formal party.\u00a0 I just want to celebrate.\u00a0 Since it’s right after the holidays, I want it to be fun and easy.\u00a0\u00a0Fancy and simple like me, so a local pub that serves yummy cheese fries is perfect.\u00a0 I’m so excited to go out and talk about this book.\u00a0 I love inspiring, inspiring, and empowering others.<\/p>\n

As we head down the holiday home stretch, let’s enjoy ourselves and watch the festive movies, listen to the jolly music, and look at the cheerful decorations and savor the season.\u00a0 Invent new traditions.\u00a0 Let go of old traditions that just stress you out.\u00a0 Kids love happy parents not the idea we have of how it should<\/em> look.\u00a0 Messy is normal.\u00a0 And love is messy too.\u00a0 Lots of love and cookies to\u00a0you for this stress-free holiday season.\u00a0 \u00a0 Merry Let it Go<\/em> Christmas and Happy Let it Go<\/em> New Years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn’t do Christmas cards. I skipped last year too.\u00a0 Last year, in my defense, I\u00a0gave birth the day after Christmas.\u00a0 This year, I could play the I have five kids or the baby card still.\u00a0 I did bake\u00a0both years and still have to bake more cookies, but\u00a0I spread them out on\u00a0different days. We are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[71,52,72,67,66,69,73,68,63,70],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-kids","tag-christmas","tag-cleaning","tag-frozen-holidays","tag-let-it-go","tag-letting-go","tag-mothering","tag-new-years","tag-parenting","tag-stress-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nMerry Let it Go Christmas - Sassy Spirit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merry Let it Go Christmas - Sassy Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I didn’t do Christmas cards. I skipped last year too.\u00a0 Last year, in my defense, I\u00a0gave birth the day after Christmas.\u00a0 This year, I could play the I have five kids or the baby card still.\u00a0 I did bake\u00a0both years and still have to bake more cookies, but\u00a0I spread them out on\u00a0different days. We are…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sassy Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-21T01:52:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-21T01:52:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jperry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Merry Let it Go Christmas - Sassy Spirit","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Merry Let it Go Christmas - Sassy Spirit","og_description":"I didn’t do Christmas cards. I skipped last year too.\u00a0 Last year, in my defense, I\u00a0gave birth the day after Christmas.\u00a0 This year, I could play the I have five kids or the baby card still.\u00a0 I did bake\u00a0both years and still have to bake more cookies, but\u00a0I spread them out on\u00a0different days. We are…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html","og_site_name":"Sassy Spirit","article_published_time":"2014-12-21T01:52:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-21T01:52:37+00:00","author":"jperry","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html","name":"Merry Let it Go Christmas - Sassy Spirit","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-21T01:52:04+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-21T01:52:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/#\/schema\/person\/25e500bdf4d2fa825084977d8be536b2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/merry-let-it-go-christmas.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Merry Let it Go Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/","name":"Sassy Spirit","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jenny G. Perry","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/#\/schema\/person\/25e500bdf4d2fa825084977d8be536b2","name":"jperry","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/author\/jperry"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}