I am a bit late posting my blog post this week but yesterday was the beginning of the holiday season for me at my job. For the next six weeks I will be questioning my sanity, dealing with extreme grouchy people and trying to stay positive. With holiday office parties going on, offices taking extra days off for the holidays and being short staffed in my office, this time of the year is always a challenge.
I work in healthcare, at a call center for over 1500 doctors. We answer their calls after hours for emergencies. Now bear in mind, I am not medical trained so if a caller tells me that they are having an emergency I am obligated to page the doctor on call. I am always amazed at what some people consider an emergency and I am equally amazed at how many times I have to argue with a doctor because he doesn’t feel like it is an emergency and doesn’t want to take the call. So I am just stuck in the middle between a grumpy caller and an equally grumpy doctor….and it is all my fault. LOL!!
But doctors that don’t want to take the calls isn’t really the thing I want to talk about….it is the fact that I have found that this time of year people become extremely grumpy and downright mean sometimes. Why is this? I have been in this job for 16 years now and I think I get yelled and called names more during the holiday season than any other time of the year. Isn’t the holiday season about brotherly love, peace on Earth and joy? So why is it that some people feel like instead of the “happiest time of the year” it is the “grouchiest time of the year?” I think part of the reason is that we get so overburdened and stressed out with everything that we forget the true meaning of the holiday season.
For me, the true meaning of the season is FAMILY and FRIENDS. It isn’t about gifts, decorations or elaborate parties, it is about spending time with those you love and cherish. I made a decision a number of years ago that I wasn’t going to let another holiday season turn me into a “Grinch”. I was going to simplify what I did during the holiday season and really focus on the little things….my Christmas village, putting up the tree, hot chocolate and watching the snow fall, watching “A Christmas Story” and National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation” with all the kids on Saturday, while we have Thanksgiving with them or convincing the boys that I need help putting up the outside lights. Michael and I have always made Christmas Eve a special night just for the two of us and we will continue with that tradition. I love seeing all the Christmas lights and I love visiting the cemetery where my mom is because one night during the holiday season, the cemetery does a “Remembrance Night” with candles on all the headstones. It is all these things that really matter and help me to stay positive.
What little things do you focus on for the holiday season that help you to stay positive?
It's funny now but years ago when hubby and i would put up our true we had a fight about how it should look. You have to understand we don't fight at all. But that tree would just set us off. Lol now we just laugh about. We resolve this by putting up two trees now one his way and one mine. Mind you we help each other put them up. Weird I know.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cheryl, a pre lit tree saved my marriage. Lol!! We always had issues with the tree lights.
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