Posted by Helen on December 17, 2003 at 13:56:08:
My husband and I do share the work during this time of year. He tends to do more of the heavy lifting type of stuff. He gets the tree and likes to set it up, and I help. I bake the cookies. We share the buying of the Christmas presents, but he puts whatever needs to be assembled together. I make the holiday meal but he cleans up and helps and takes care of the kids so I can cook. There is a lot to do and we also talk about how to minimize stress with our families. How did this happen? Over time we came to divide our efforts and now our system just happens. We have seen that overdoing family visits just makes the whole season worse for us so we limit it, and try to do things for our immediate family first, and of course, the children. I do try to build in a little mini break for myself during Christmas vacation as it always gets to a point where I feel housebound. But since I have been talking about this all year it is no surprise and my husband takes a mental health day or two off for me so I can have some personal space.