Girlfriends, episode number 50.

How Not to Go Christmas Crazy.

Hello and welcome to Girlfriends.

I'm Danielle Bean.

I'm a wife and a mom, and I'm on a mission to help you know

your worth as a woman so you can find peace, balance, and joy in family living.

So what are we waiting for? Let's get started.

Hey, girlfriends, welcome to another episode of the Girlfriends Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Happy Advent. How are you doing? Are you going crazy yet? It's such a crazy time of year. I think that that's why I wanted to talk about this topic this week. Don't go Christmas crazy,

because that is the temptation and that is the default mode this time of year. There's just so much. There's so much to do. And a lot of it we put on ourselves, pressure we put on ourselves.

There's so much going on. There's so much noise. There's so much

commotion. There's so much excitement, especially if you're a mom of young kids, you feel a lot of

that going on in your household. So last week we talked about ways to keep Advent simple, some

simple ideas for Advent. But this week I wanted to address a little bit of that Christmas crazy. I've been a victim of it,

mostly through my own doing. I think maybe that's probably the first point I want to make

before I talk about some of my specific points on how to not go Christmas crazy. But you put a lot

of this pressure on yourself. Let's just admit it. We're always like,

you know, we moms are going around and we're talking to each other and we're like, I got to make these

cookies. I got to send the cards. I got to, you know, make these craft ornaments with the kids. I got to

bake the thing for my neighbor. I always do. And, you know, I think sometimes we fall prey to that. I've always done it.

Or my mom always did it. Or the neighbors gave me a baked good. Now I have to return that.

You know, you don't. No, you don't. And you know what? It's such a crazy time of year.

If you don't reciprocate something this year and if you wait and you get them back next year,

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