Holiday Blues

This holiday is a little different from any other holiday my husband and I have ever celebrated together - this year it lacks a little luster. Normally my hubby and I are running around like starstruck children with sugar plums dancing around our heads - in anticipation of all the great events we get to go to during the holiday season - Christmas at the Zoo, Winter Solstice at the IMA, getting to spend time with our family and getting to buy everyone gifts and watching them open them! What fun! We spend our holiday season buzzing off of mugs and mugs of hot cocoa and our home, office and car are filled with blasts of Christmas music for hours on end. We love the holidays - but like I said, this year is different - we are mourning the loss of a dear grandmother, dealing with the destruction that divorce had brought upon my immediate family, and most recently dealing with career struggles - nothing is the same any more. I feel a little jaded - I miss being happy-go-lucky at Christmas. But I am not the only one who feels this way - that I can take comfort in.

Here are some helpful resources for those battling the holiday blues:
Holiday Depression and Stress
Stress, depression and the holidays: 12 tips for coping
Tip # 7. The Reason for the Season
Excerpt from www.selfcounseling.com
...finally (and of most importance), remember the spirit of the holidays. Our three major holidays involve some very special messages that we need to remember. Thanksgiving celebrates the bounty that surrounds us. It is people coming together to feast and reflect upon a year's harvest of labors. However great or small, there are things to be celebrated. Christmas is the season of profound love. The importance of giving to others and sharing and bringing joy to the world are central to our spiritual meanings in life. New Year's is a time of new beginnings. A time to let go of the old, forget the past, and to rededicate our energies, our talents, and our love to another year. New Year's is a reminder that, with every ending, there is a new beginning.

Cheerful Links That Make Me Smile
CuteOverload
Adorablog
Reading Amazing Stories at Rolling Dog Ranch
Holiday Blues Posts