GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or thinking of quitting, please -- join us! We kindly ask that politics be left out.
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A message to ALL quitters. You don't have to avoid GUS if you have a failed quit. We won't give you a bad time and we consider the failed quits as "practice" for the real quit.
Okay, THAT was fun.
The "that" in question? Hosting Christmas for a good-sized chunk of my family and a few friends, over a couple of days. Wrangling kids & hanging with grown-ups (17 people in total, plus a cat), with piles of presents to wrap and stockings to stuff, and making sure folks had stuff to eat and drink and a place to sleep and put their luggage and presents and...well, it was a big ol' juggling act. A fun one, but a lot to juggle nonetheless. It's been a lot of years since I hosted a really big family gathering...the ones I remember took place in rented apartments and involved siblings with smaller families and different expectations, but this was something else.
Fortunately, though, I think it went pretty well. No kid meltdowns (and no grown-up ones, either...whoo-hoo!), and nothing broken, unless you count my niece's pink light-up fairy wand that went kaboom and had to be taped back together. There was time for nice conversations, tasty munchies and delicious drinkies. Got to spend time with people I don't see often enough, which is always great, and welcome friends along with family. Those of us who stayed over last night even managed to plunk ourselves down for one of our family traditions, watching the Christmas episode of Doctor Who (which, among other awesomeness, involved Richard E. Grant as a Victorian-era villain and the voice of Sir Ian McKellen as...well, as a giant, evil, intelligent snow globe, basically). Good times.
I was probably a little too wound up and wired last night to get to sleep easily, so I'm running on a lot less sleep than I should be, and I'm starting to feel it now. I should probably be picking tinsel out of the rug, moving the furniture back to where it normally lives, going around the house locating left-behind items, and and running a load or two of laundry, but...well, let's just say I ran out of steam regarding that type of activity about the same time I emptied, reloaded, and re-emptied the dishwasher after breakfast this morning. Instead, I went to see my Dad for a bit, had coffee, chatted, and then ended up doing some dishes and taking out the garbage at his place. And when I remembered, partway through the visit, that it was my night to host GUS---Wednesday totally snuck up on me!---I had to scramble.
(Fair warning, if I disappear this evening, I'm probably conked out on the couch in front of my laptop. Take pity on me!)
The good news is that I took off enough time so that there will be time to tidy up and regroup later on and still have time to do a few fun things before I have to return to work. No more rush to meet holiday deadlines; no more scrambling to make sure Amazon deliveries happen on time, no more fretting about the right stuff making it into the right stocking, or worrying that someone might come down with a bad case of Holiday Drama (TM). My tree's going to stay right where it is until New Year's Day; I can afford to pause and take a breath and not sweat the little details for a change. So Happy Holidays to me, and to everyone in the GUS community. Time to take a breath and count my blessings.
p.s. Happy Day After StateOfGrace Day! (or Boxing Day, if you live in the UK or Commonwealth).
I don't know how your family usually celebrates this festive occasion, but I hear that roasting citizenx is a popular option.
Also, tasty snacks.
Note: Anyone who is thinking about quitting (or giving quitting another shot) on New Year's Day, you're getting down to the wire, but there's still time to psych yourself up for it. A week from now it'll be 2013 and you just might be the smoke-free person you've wanted to be. Hang out here and get prepared for the first big Quit Day of the new year!
Who's your little buddy?
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