Grown Up Christmas

It's Christmas Eve!!! Another year is almost over - how has it gone so fast?! 

Christmas is a huge deal in my house. My mum decorates every room of the house to look like Santa's Grotto - no, I am not kidding! Those of you who know my mum will understand the pain we go through. ;) 

As a child I remember being so excited for Christmas! I would get so giddy just like any child in a Christmas movie. The whole idea of waking up to snow (which never happened because we never had snow on Christmas morning!), seeing the Christmas tree with presents surrounding it, having all the family around the table for Christmas dinner and just genuinely having a whale of a time. As I have gotten older, I still get excited. But I guess, as I have to (at least try to) act like a grown up, my excitement is a little bit more reserved. I still love opening presents, but I love to see the look on the faces of my friends and family when they open the presents I got for them - it's mostly shock at my horrific wrapping skills .... which reminds me, I really need to get wrapping! But there is a lot of commercialism involved with Christmas, and it gets even more commercial with each year that passes. The true meaning is being lost in more places and fighting it out to get the perfect gift causes more arguments than it should. So, as a family, we take time to remember Jesus being born (every childhood video of Christmas morning shows my brother, sister and I saying 'happy birthday' to Jesus) and celebrate the beauty of this and hope we have because of it. Jesus is the reason for the season y'all! Can you tell I have listened to a lot of country music already today?

To encourage getting excited for Christmas, you have to put on those Christmas songs! There is a mountain of Christmas songs that I listen to at this time of year. Michael. Buble. You know what I am talking about! His Christmas album is completely on fleek (as my sister would say). I also have a lot of country versions of different Christmas songs that are on repeat. The classics of Bing Crosby, Point of Grace and Steven Curtis Chapman are played too. All of these remind me of when my family and I celebrated Christmas as a child and some have been added to the playlist since. 

However, one has been played quite a lot this year in particular. Amy Grant's 'My Grown Up Christmas List' (or Kelly Clarkson's depending on whose I feel like listening to). This year it rings particularly true with all that has panned out across the world. We live in beautiful world, but at the moment, we frequently see it's darkness. The media has shone a huge spotlight on events in Syria and Paris, but there are countless other events that we do not see on the news. There is so much hurt and violence happening on a daily basis, yet we don't always hear about it, often because the latest celebrity scandal is deemed more newsworthy or because politics has brushed it under the carpet. 

Listening to the song, I think about how Christmas was for me as a child, and how I see it now. I still get a kick out of seeing the Christmas tree, giving and receiving presents and getting to spend time with family and friends. But, I realise that this is not everyone's reality at Christmas. Not just those in foreign countries, crippled by war or poverty, but those in my own country. 

Additionally, there will be many people celebrating Christmas without some of their loved ones. This sucks. When Christmas is built up to be 'family time' and family or friends are no longer around, it can be really difficult to enjoy this time of year. It's often lonely. It's often sad. It's sometimes bittersweet. I have so many family memories of Christmas that include my dad, and I wish he was still around to celebrate it with us. But just because we have the people around us that we love, doesn't mean everyone else does too.

So this Christmas (no, don't start singing Wham!), I encourage you to count your blessings. Cherish all that you have and be grateful for it. But take time to remember those who are not as fortunate as you. And if you are in the position where you can, do something to make someone else's Christmas special, whether it be taking some gingerbread men to your grumpy neighbour, giving money to a worthy charity or just phoning the relatives you don't speak to often enough to wish them a merry Christmas. 

I hope you have the most wonderful Christmas, spent with the ones you love! 

Erin x

(I have been informed that the hair WAS fashionable at the time ..... ;) jokes - I always wanted curly hair!)

(Please feel free to comment on the blog and if there is anyone reading these posts that would like to email me to share their stories or experiences, then please do - thereislifeoutthere123@gmail.com - I would love to hear from you!) 

1 New Year, 6 New Approaches

And just like that, it's 2016! Where did 2015 even go?!

When New Year rolled around last year I wrote a blog post about my lack of faith in resolutions (read it here http://thereislifeoutthere.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/happy-new-year-and-all-that-jazz.html). I still believe they are essentially hopes and dreams that we make, but they are also simply ones we can make every other day of the year. 

I may have also mentioned that it makes sense to start the new year with a sense of clarity and a fresh approach to what you want the year ahead to hold. But along with this, there often comes a focus on ourselves. For many people, 2015 hasn't been a great year. Unfortunately, 2016 won't be that great for some either. When asked what I believe 2016 would hold for me, I honestly felt really anxious. 2015 hasn't been the most clear, and it makes me nervous to think if 2016 will be better. But I did think. Instead of thinking about what was going to happen in 2016 for me and those around me I thought about the different ways I could approach this year ahead. I hope I can remind myself of these when I feel frustrated with the year, and I hope these will give you some ideas as to how you can approach 2016 too!

1. Remember to breathe

Life is busy. Can I get an 'Amen'? I'm sure we all wish we could be a little like Zack Morris and be able to pause time, even if that means our friends are really bad at pretending to freeze. There are piles of to-do lists we can write for ourselves (and delegate a few more to others) and often it can feel as if they grow before we can tick anything off. This is literally my life when it comes to my job. Eventually though, some things become irrelevant because the time they needed to be completed for passes by. Honestly, this is actually quite satisfying. I'm not saying give up on what you need to get done, just don't stress if you don't get everything done! This wasn't even my main point here .... My main point is that sometimes your lists need to take a back seat and be put on the back-burner. You need to take time to breathe - do something that relaxes you. Get a new hobby and spend a little bit of time (or a lot if you put the 'pro' in procrastination) every now and then, as frequently as possible, giving yourself a much needed break!

2. Stop focussing on the past

This is very easily said but very difficult to do. Whilst is can be nice to reminisce, focusing on what has already happened can lead to missing what is happening in the present. I often overthink what has happened previously and this just adds to me being anxious. I need to learn to take every experience and opportunity for what it is and not bring any luggage of failure or fear. If we all approached different work opportunities, social experiences and people this way, would we have more confidence? Would we be more willing to step out of our comfort zone? Would we be more likely to realise our potential?

3. Just keep swimming

I am 90% sure that I have quoted Finding Nemo in a previous post, and I am 100% sure I will quote the movie again in the future (#sorrynotsorry). The whole concept behind Dory's ridiculously catchy song is relevant to anyone. Whatever life throws at you, whether it is something you've been waiting to happen for years or something that just flat out sucks, you have to keep going. Life is meant to be lived and even when you feel like you are crumbling under the pressures of school or work, or whether you could just really use a duvet day and spend it watching day-time TV, there is still beauty and hope in the life you live ...

4. Search for beauty and hope

I can pretty much guarantee that there will be moments in 2016 that won't exactly be fun for you. But, there will still be plenty of beautiful things about your life that you can look to and be thankful for. Maybe a life-long friendship will take it's course and fizzle out, but you will have other relationships with other friends and your family that you can look to. These relationships might even benefit and develop into something even more beautiful. Also look for the hope in your life. There will be things that you can be hopeful for. What are you hopeful for?

5. Focus on other people

Another easily said, harder to do one. When you're finding it tough, know someone else is finding it tough too. Maybe your 'toughness' won't be the same, but if you put your focus on someone else who is hurting, it may help. Do this even if you aren't finding anything tough - if someone else is, you can help them. Make sure you also take the time to develop the relationships in your life. Don't choose to only interact with people via social media - crazily enough, you can speak to someone face-to-face without one of you bursting into a ball of flames! Choose grabbing a long-overdue coffee (or caramel hot chocolate for us non-hipster people) with someone you haven't seen in a while over binge watching Netflix. Or, have that coffee while watching Netflix with that friend! Just spend this year with other people. Make memories and encourage one another. 

6. Prioritise right

As I have said, life is busy. But if we can learn to put what is important first and not put greater emphasis on far less meaningful things, life would be a lot smoother. I know that if I spend less time stressing about work than I spend actually getting it done (fellow procrastinators will understand me) my life would be far easier! That's a basic example, and probably one that relates to all of us. My main focus for this year ahead is to get the big priorities right. 1. God 2. Family and friends 3. Work. I know people reading this may not believe in what I do but I know that I need to put God first in my life. There are so many things that I waste time worrying about that could have not even developed into an issue if I had prayed or read my Bible. So, this is something that I am approaching differently going into 2016. As for family and work, I understand I have to work, and so does my family, but it's when work life takes precedence over spending time as a family that we have issues! In 2016, I have to make sure that my priorities are in the correct order! I don't want to look back in a year from now and realise that all my issues and struggles were a result of my priorities not being in the right order .... because that would be my fault, and I would rather blame someone else .... just kidding!

Despite nerves and anxieties growing each day over many different things, I look forward to seeing what 2016 holds, and what we all do with it. As corny as it sounds we only have one time to make 2016 count. So approach it the right way and actually make it count!