Taking Back the Holidays

Are you feeling burdened with your divorce matter? Are you finding it challenging to focus on making good decisions? It’s normal to feel this way, but with an experienced yet compassionate attorney, such as Sabra Janko, Colorado Springs divorce attorney, along with her awesome team we can assist with alleviating those feelings you may be having.

Today I’m here to chat with you about a topic that is on the horizon; the looming Holiday Season. I’m not here to tell you how it will go and to burden you even more. I’m here to tell you that it’s possible to take back the holidays, enjoy them and then seize the new year with a renewed sense of self.

Once again on my recent travels, I was reminded of that wonderful time of year. The decorations, the music, the families traveling together. Depending on your state of mind, it’s enough to make you run for the hills or cause you to feel a little nauseous. Just a side note, I travel because I’m Sagittarius and that’s what we’re supposed to do. But I don’t visit far off places like Fuji or the Australian Outback. However, those are on my bucket list for sure! I just keep it local for right now. But I digress. So yes, I was a little annoyed at the music or rolled my eyes at couples holding hands. However, I had such a magnificent weekend because I was surrounded by family and friends and nothing else mattered at that point. We watched Christmas movies, sampled eggnog with various different liquors to see which was the best and admired the gorgeous decorations of a quaint, small town we visited one evening. We also enjoyed home- cooked meals and did some Christmas arts and crafts with the kids. I even made a new friend on the outbound flight! We exchanged contact numbers and made plans to meet up soon. That was totally unexpected!

When I flew back on the inbound flight to Denver, I couldn’t help but view the world around me through different lenses. Maybe not the rose-colored ones (let’s not get ahead of ourselves here), but I can definitely say I wasn’t feeling like the Grinch that stole Christmas nor did I have contempt for the Holidays as Ebenezer Scrooge would. Instead, I felt loved and ready for the next few weeks. I realized that keeping things sweet and simple made me happy. I didn’t realize that at all on my Thanksgiving trip, and if you read my ‘Party of One’ column piece a few weeks ago, you know how I felt about it. This time it was different because I had unexpectedly created my own happiness and kept my expectations in check. And now, I’m refusing to let a divorce rob me of my right to contentment and enjoying a festive time of year. To me, that’s a step in the right direction in regards to dealing the aftermath of a divorce.

However, I’m not out of the woods yet. There’s still Christmas and the new year to contend with. So I developed a contingency plan to carry me through the last few weeks of 2023.

• I plan on calling my parents on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. We can chat for hours about anything and nothing and I always feel good about it afterwards.
• I’ll make sure I reach out to my new friend! Even if it’s just for coffee to start with, it’ll give me something to look forward to.
• I don’t have my son for Christmas, so I plan on spending time with him the weekend before to exchange gifts and make sugar cookies!
• Watch movies that never get old like ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’, ‘Elf’ and the first two ‘Home Alone’ movies.
• For New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some junk food and watch Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve. Come midnight, I will text family and friends, ‘Happy New Year!’ Then I’m going to hit the hay afterwards to get some sleep so I can enjoy my day off.

You can try some of these or come up with a few of your own that works best for your situation and dynamic. I’ll definitely let you know how my plan turns out!

If you are needing a caring and compassionate Colorado Springs divorce lawyer to assist you with your family law matter, please feel free to contact us for a free consultation about Colorado Springs divorce, child custody and family law at 719-344-5523.