{"id":285,"date":"2014-12-21T22:50:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T22:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/?p=285"},"modified":"2014-12-21T22:50:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T22:50:25","slug":"is-this-present-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html","title":{"rendered":"Is this PRESENT enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you feel this holiday hurry, the last weekend before Christmas? It’s also the Winter Solstice, which is called Yule as well, and it’s also the New Moon. You know this gets my woo woo<\/em> going. I try to weave\u00a0the magic\u00a0into my every day normal-ish life.\u00a0 I will set intentions tonight and I feel that pull to look within on this darkest night.\u00a0 My father-in-law always reminds me it’s all up from here as the days get shorter now.\u00a0 I’m a sunshine girl who loves the summer, being outside, toes in the sand, eyes looking skyward with open arms.\u00a0 The cold winters in the Northeast are not as bad as other places I know, but that wind gets in my bones.\u00a0 I use the hermit\/hibernation time for writing and asking myself to be real…that shadow side of all us exists and we must make peace with her.<\/p>\n

Which leads into what I wanted to focus on here with\u00a0our shadow side, ego, those wounded places within can make us feel like we’re not enough when we get around family this time of year. How does you life stack up next to your sister?\u00a0 Are her kids more well-behaved?\u00a0 Is you brother going on an epic vacation and you’re broke?\u00a0 Are your cousins happily married and you’re divorced?\u00a0 This is not about anyone else.\u00a0 This is always about you. It’s for you to choose what to focus on.\u00a0 Are you true to yourself?\u00a0 Are you happy?\u00a0 Is that enough?<\/p>\n

I remember many years stressing about getting my kids, parents, in-laws, friends, kids’ teachers and whoever else the perfect<\/em> presents.\u00a0 I would even buy each dance teacher of my oldest daughter’s a specific piece of jewelry I felt fit them perfectly.\u00a0 Doing this on a shoestring budget always made me feel less than, like I wasn’t enough, and my gift\u00a0wasn’t enough.\u00a0 As I got into my thirties, I had three kids at that point (five\u00a0now and yes, I’m done) and I started baking cookies for all the teachers.\u00a0 I\u00a0decided I didn’t care if the ate them, gave them to someone else, or tossed them.\u00a0 It’s the thought that counts.<\/em>\u00a0 Seriously, it\u00a0is.\u00a0 And if I’m honest with myself, the early school years I was\u00a0trying to impress or be in the teacher’s good favor with my gift…or it was for the other moms to know about.\u00a0\u00a0I wanted to be the everything mom.\u00a0 The first year I did the cookie presents, I thought I was Martha\u00a0Stewart and ended up with flour in my hair for real and the cookies\u00a0looked\u00a0perfect but it wasn’t fun.\u00a0\u00a0My cookies this year looked like a Pinterest fail and it wasn’t even that the kids decorated those ones.\u00a0 I had to buy the already rolled dough so it wasn’t even like I didn’t roll the dough thin enough.\u00a0 They\u00a0turned out like\u00a0obese gingerbread men with the defined shape.\u00a0 They also spread so much, that they connected on the cookie sheet while baking and when pulled apart had slanted heads.\u00a0 I used a gummy candy thing to give them red hair so they were ginger<\/em>-bread men.\u00a0 My icing was runny even though I made it like I normally do.\u00a0 I’m hoping one of the teachers gets a chuckle when they see one of these guys.\u00a0 I can just say the kids made them.\u00a0 Hehe!\u00a0 It’s enough though.\u00a0 The holidays are not about present contests with anyone.\u00a0 It’s a time for enjoying our friends and family whether you celebrate the birth of Jesus, Hannukah,\u00a0 Kwanzaa, Yule, or just Santa, it’s about presence not presents.<\/p>\n

Blessings to all.\u00a0 You are enough.<\/p>\n

\"presentblog\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you feel this holiday hurry, the last weekend before Christmas? It’s also the Winter Solstice, which is called Yule as well, and it’s also the New Moon. You know this gets my woo woo going. I try to weave\u00a0the magic\u00a0into my every day normal-ish life.\u00a0 I will set intentions tonight and I feel that…<\/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":[52,78,46,74,76,77,75],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-gifts","tag-holidays","tag-perfect-perfectionism-parenting","tag-solstice","tag-winter","tag-yule"],"yoast_head":"\nIs this PRESENT enough? - 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=\"Is this PRESENT enough? - Sassy Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can you feel this holiday hurry, the last weekend before Christmas? It’s also the Winter Solstice, which is called Yule as well, and it’s also the New Moon. You know this gets my woo woo going. I try to weave\u00a0the magic\u00a0into my every day normal-ish life.\u00a0 I will set intentions tonight and I feel that…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sassy Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-21T22:50:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/files\/2014\/12\/presentblog-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jperry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is this PRESENT enough? - Sassy Spirit","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is this PRESENT enough? - Sassy Spirit","og_description":"Can you feel this holiday hurry, the last weekend before Christmas? It’s also the Winter Solstice, which is called Yule as well, and it’s also the New Moon. You know this gets my woo woo going. I try to weave\u00a0the magic\u00a0into my every day normal-ish life.\u00a0 I will set intentions tonight and I feel that…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html","og_site_name":"Sassy Spirit","article_published_time":"2014-12-21T22:50:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/files\/2014\/12\/presentblog-300x300.jpg"}],"author":"jperry","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html","name":"Is this PRESENT enough? - Sassy Spirit","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/files\/2014\/12\/presentblog-300x300.jpg","datePublished":"2014-12-21T22:50:25+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-21T22:50:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/#\/schema\/person\/25e500bdf4d2fa825084977d8be536b2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/files\/2014\/12\/presentblog-300x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/files\/2014\/12\/presentblog-300x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/2014\/12\/is-this-present-enough.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is this PRESENT enough?"}]},{"@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\/285","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=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sassyspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}