What is it about the holiday season that makes everyone so rushed? You often hear the terms “hustle” and “bustle” used to describe the “holiday rush.”

Yet, the really odd thing is that it seems as though the world takes a little vacation from the annoying daily grind. It’s almost as if there is an unwritten law that states, “No life altering decisions shall be made or acted upon from November 15th through January 01.”

And, while job changes, purchasing cars and houses, moving, business (except retail), seems to slow considerably – everything else seems to speed up. It’s almost as if in that month or so of the holiday season we’re all trying to catch up for the “home living” we’ve missed out on during the rest of the year.

We try to put a year’s worth of appreciating family and friends, baking, cooking, celebrating, homemaking, and living into just a month or so. It can be exhausting and wonderful all at once.

Even TV takes a break… all of the sudden the new episodes of favorite shows that we’ve enjoyed for the past couple of months seem to just dry up! Sure, there may be a few holiday specials… but other than that – nothing. People are too busy visiting, shopping, baking, cooking, going to parties, wrapping presents and decorating the tree.

It’s amazing when you take a moment to step back and watch nearly everyone seem to just slow down and speed up all at the same time, and we all just go with it.

I confess, it’s no different at our house. The decorations go up with an almost ritualistic precision every Thanksgiving weekend. The next weekend we buy the tree and decorate it – right on schedule. We attend the company Christmas party and do a late night stop at Toys R Us.

Christmas Eve is really down to a comfortable pace. My husband and I have been together for so long now that we instinctively know our spots and slip into them easily. We go to my mom’s, we come home late (usually driving through the fog), we put the kids to bed and put the turkey in the oven. When we are sure the kids are asleep… we sneak around with childish glee putting the finishing touches on Christmas morning. We finally crawl into bed never earlier than 2am – and the kids wake us up never later than 6am.

By the end of the day people have come in and out, the space under the tree is bare, a large garbage sack is filled with wrapping paper and the occasional essential part to that new toy that I swear I’ve told one of the kids a dozen times – NOT to pull out of the box just yet.

When everyone has gone home the house seems terribly empty and begins to feel like the aging Ghost of Christmas Present from a Christmas Carol. Remember, at the end of his time with Scrooge how he began to grow frail and age? It’s almost as if for just a moment, I can feel him there in the room, slipping away.

It’s usually about that time that it all seems very overwhelming. It’s amazing to see all the things that have happened over the past year and wonder about everything to come in the next.
The older I get the faster the year seems to fly by. I am beginning to realize how quickly it all goes and wish that I had appreciated more before it went.

What is it about this time of year that brings about so much looking back and looking in?