travelswithminis

Each year that we have done a  holiday letter we have had a decent balance. Each person gets a paragraph to sum up the complexities of the year. Most of the time any achievements or huge highlights are there making it look as though this year has been great, you add in one thing you overcame or struggled with to appear as though you aren’t perfect and there is room for improvement in the new year.

You can’t use your holiday letter to say how you really are,  much like this time of year its all about appearances and entitlement.

Truthfully we all kind of hate this time of year. It causes stress and pressure to families who care about “keeping up with the Jones’s.” Pressure to travel to be with family, and deal with  family politics, even with there are clearly issues that need to be dealt with, you sweep them under the rug and put on the holiday cheer, cause no one likes a party pooper.

You are entitled to all the joy and happiness that society says you should have this month… So when tragedy  strikes as it does so often this time of year, we are more heart broken (maybe more than we would be). We  feel as our friends and family should be there and this is supposed to be a “happy time of year”. Honestly isn’t that too much pressure for a few cold weeks to harbor.

So why then keep up this charade in our holiday letters?

Can’t I write a letter saying….

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has sucked for my family. While the kids have been alright and blissfully unaware or our current mental and financial state, the adults are barely hanging in there. We have survived death of a sibling, career changes,  car accidents, alcoholism, surgeries, and the good old fashion family drama of will she or won’t she go to jail? But we have survived! So suck it 2014! Let’s toast to changes in 2015 and we welcome all the prayers and positive vibes as we challenge ourselves to survive this new year.

Blissfully Alive,

This Family.

To be fair, that does overlook the many positives of the year. Its for sure sometimes hard to savor the small positive when the negatives are seemingly so large. Looming negative ruining your holiday spirit… again with this “holiday spirit” can’t we just challenge ourselves to  “cheerful and bright” all year.

Also can we stop with all the competitive nature of the holidays. All of the my family is better than yours, we bought such and such, and just talk candidly with our families.

Just kidding. When  you go home, make sure to hide you real feelings, along with who you really are and that tattoo you got over spring break.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.