Merry Christmas everyone!

Have a wonderful Christmas or whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year.

Be back in the new year.

My favourite things about Christmas

Merry Christmas for those who celebrate.  I’ll be taking a wee break from blogging to go visit family.  See you in the New Year!

Here are my favourite things about Christmas.  What are yours?

1.  The Christmas story.  Every Christmas eve we read aloud the Christmas story.  Such a beautiful reminder of what it’s all about.

2. Watching the kid’s faces. Even though they’re getting older they are still so excited on Christmas morning, just now part of the excitement comes from what they’re giving to others.

3.  Food.  Egg nog, turkey, stuffing, pecan pie, Christmas cookies, Starbucks Christmas blend coffee, bacon on Christmas morning.  It’s all so yummy.

4.  Being with family.  I missed my family terribly when we lived in BC and in India.  I hated being away for Christmas.  I still cry every time I hear “I’ll be home for Christmas ..” even though I am home!

5. Taking some time off.  I don’t get much down time.  It’s part of the way I am.  I don’t relax easily.  I am forever trying to be productive but for the week between Christmas and New Years when the office shuts down, e-mail comes to a stand still, and we go away to visit the in-laws for a few days there is nothing else to do but relax.

Christmas Traditions

I love family traditions.  My kids love doing the same thing year after year.

Some of our family Christmas traditions include:

Have breakfast at MacDonalds Christmas Eve morning in celebration of my brother’s birthday.  It’s the one time of year I eat there but it wouldn’t be his birthday or Christmas without that.

Grandpa (my Dad) reading the family the Christmas story and The Night Before Christmas, on Christmas Eve

Hanging stockings

Bacon and eggs for Christmas morning breakfast.

Christmas morning just the 4 of us and then heading over to my brother’s to join the rest of the family.

Pie.  Oh, I love pie.

My Dad’s birthday is Christmas day so mid afternoon we switch to a birthday party.

One of my husband’s traditions from his side is to place the unwrapped gifts back under the tree.  I liked this so much we do this now too.

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

Questioning – Do what you love and the money will follow

From the time I was a teen, I believed very strongly in the theory that says

Do what you love and the money will follow.

So, I took a bit of an unconventional route in life.  I majored in a subject I enjoyed, I worked in non-profit my whole career so far.  I found my passion and did it to the best of my ability.  But what I love, isn’t income generating.

There has to be a line somewhere between living your dreams and practical responsibility.  Do I love what I do?  Yes.  Do I feel guilty that we don’t have health benefits and live on an extremely tight budget?  Yes I do.  I know our life choices have brought us here but I sometimes struggle with finding that balance.  Will my kids grow up to resent the fact that we never once went on family vacation except to  visit other family members?  Is it ok that my daughter is the only one in her class who has never been to Disney?

Then I think about so many amazing people I know who’ve grown up in very modest environments.  Their memories are about simple things like family games night or sledding down a hill together.  Enriching the lives of my kids doesn’t have to cost money.

There has to be a line somewhere.  I really need to find it.

Friday Photo

Defining Productivity

I had a very unproductive day, which means to say barely anything got scratched off my ‘to do’ list.  Nothing was accomplished.

I wasn’t being lazy.  In truth, I felt as though I was putting out fires all day, responding to e-mail and requests.  At one point someone needed to talk and I dropped everything.

In India we were told that if someone came to visit, we were to drop everything and just be in the moment.  It happened often, so often in fact that weeks went by where I felt like I got nothing done.  There came a point where it wasn’t even worthwhile to create the ‘to do’ list because as soon as I went to tackle point number #1, someone would show up at the door.  Over time we built relationships that in Canada would have taken many years to form.  We gave people our time and our undivided attention.  Was it productive?  Not so much.

Wouldn’t it be better if my ‘to do’ list said

1. Be open to what today brings you.

2. Be present in the moment.

3. Put people before agendas.

Perhaps the depth of our relationships would be a better measure of success.

It’s the small things that really matter

My 11 year old came home from school today with some really exciting news.  Now this is a guy who doesn’t get excited about a lot of things.  He announced, “You’ll never guess what happened.  It was the most amazing thing.  I finally, after all these years made it to the back row in the Christmas play!”  I laughed.

“You mean you’re one of the taller ones now?”, I asked.

“Yes, but it was close.  Kelby was in the back row and then they realized that I was taller than Kelby so they move me to the back row.  Can you believe it?  Isn’t that awesome?”

Okey dokie then.  If that’s what does it for you.  If only I could be that excited about the little things in life.

A Unique Opportunity

I found out recently that I had been nominated for the position of Executive Director for a non-profit that partners with the same non-profit I currently work for.  What an honour.  It would have meant a significant increase in responsibility. It also offered a modest salary, well below salaries in the business world but more than I’m currently able to bring in now.  It was in the city where my husband will need to be for next year.  It seemed like a great opportunity.  Our income has dropped and this amount would have made up for the shortfall and it would have meant living, albeit modestly, in the city where we are suppose to work.  It seemed like a good thing.

In truth, I knew the current ED was retiring shortly and that the position was becoming available.  I knew what his salary was and I was working at preparing myself professionally to apply for this position.  I’d be thinking this was an answer to our issues for over a year now.

Then the offer came.  Apparently the week before, the board of directors voted to make it a volunteer position.  They  hoped I’d still consider taking the job.  They said it in such a positive enthusiastic way that I had trouble matching the words with the tone.  You mean you’d like me to do this for free?  You mean the salary you mentioned before is no longer on the table and you want me to still consider moving to one of Canada’s most expensive cities, taking on a role with significant hours and responsibilities and you don’t want to pay me?  Oh, you’ll reimburse any expenses I have but there will be no salary?

I went from feeling honoured at being nominated to feeling disappointed, discouraged and undervalued.  And then I started to wonder, if not this opportunity what is next for me?

Do opportunities come to you or do you go after opportunities?

I’ve been asking around, “How did you end up doing what you’re doing?  Did you go after it or did it just somehow fall into your lap?”

I’ve been surprised at the results.  Most of the people I’ve talked to say that they are where they are because things have just fallen into place and they are rather surprised they’ve landed where they have.  Yet I’ve met many others who knew exactly where they were going and what they wanted to do with their lives.  There was no stopping them and they’ve been rather successful at what they set their mind to do.

I like situations that come to me.  I like it when someone says, “I have an opportunity for you that I’d like you to consider.”  Then I think about it.  Sometimes I say yes, other times I say no.  I would rather someone else sought me out and saw something in me that they want rather than me trying to convince another that I’m the right person for the role.  It puts me in a less vulnerable position.

Lately I’ve started going after things.  I asked for a change of role in my work.  I’ve stepped out of my comfort zones and volunteered in areas where I hadn’t been asked.  I confess, I still prefer it when someone says, “Boy do I have an idea for you!” and then I can consider it.

Friday Photo