29 December 2011

Holiday Stress

I had an epiphany about Holiday stress as I was walking into a Starbucks for a little knitting meetup with my family on Christmas Eve.

Somehow, the holidays always seem to be stressful. List makers make lists, shoppers flock to the shops, bakers cover their counters with cookies, decorators decorate the heck out of their spaces and crafters work their wee little knuckles to the bone. People get short tempered and intensly focused which leads to holiday tensions in parking lots, shopping centers, etc.

For the past several years I have tried to do more handcrafting for Christmas gifts, which is its own kind of stress. It's the stress of wondering "Will I finish all this in time?!?" "Will they like it?" "If they don't like it, how can I ask for it back without seeming rude?" and so on. HOWEVER (and here's my epiphany) Crafting stress is the kind of stressing out that happens while you're in your pajamas at home on your couch watching TV show marathons or listening to music of your choice. It is NOT the fighting traffic, standing in lines filled with cranky people and listening to the same piped in holiday music that every store seems to play, but with a 1-2 song delay ensuring that you hear the exact same song at least 3 times in 3 different stores kinda stress. I would far prefer the Holiday Stress of a Crafter to the Holiday Stress of a non-crafter.

Here's a picture of one of the fun things I crafted for the holidays.

He was for my dad who we like to tease about his sneaky ninja-like qualities.

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