Note to self:  December is NOT the month to have not felt well.  I knew when I was under the weather at the beginning of the month that I was falling way behind on my preparations for Christmas by staying in bed, but believing I am actually Wonder Woman I told myself not to worry because I would soon snap back and be able to easily catch up lickety split and get everything done before Christmas

Yeah…so another note to self:  You obviously forgot this is 2020 and NOTHING in 2020 is easy!

At least 80% of the gifts I’d thought I’d ordered and had on their way ended up cancelled by the different suppliers because either their factories had been closed due to COVID so they’d run out of stock or their shipping was delayed because of COVID and they couldn’t get it in time for Christmas. ARGGHHHH!!!! 

I have spent days scrambling to locate new replacement items for all the things that were cancelled, ordering them again from new sources online, only to get calls from vendors the very next day saying they are sorry they hadn’t updated their websites yet but they too have run out of stock. NOOOOO!!!

I told my kids tonight that I am officially starting a new tradition next year for Christmas – I’m going to give each of them some money going into December that they can use to go buy their own Christmas presents with and then they can wrap all of them in wrapping paper and on Christmas morning I’ll watch as they open them and be surprised by what I bought each of them for Christmas.  Isn’t that genius??!!  My son thought I was kidding when I said it…yeah…not kidding…I mean think about it…I don’t have to shop for gifts, I don’t have to wrap anything, and I still get the joy of watching them unwrap things….its perfect!!!

One last note to self:  Its 2020 so cut yourself just a little slack, will ya?

Here’s to doing the best we can and letting that be enough this holiday. 

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )