Holiday Cheer

I know I have mentioned this before, but the holidays are always a bitter sweet for me. I love my job but it often involves me working over the holidays. Even before my current job I found myself working the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, the day after Christmas, NYE and New Years day even. Add in travel to these short stints of time I have off and well...theres only little bits of time to celebrate. Because of this I have started some of my own holiday traditions to keep my holiday spirits at a max throughout the month of December that I make time for around my ever so holiday hectic work schedule.

Some of my holiday traditions for the month of December and how I make the time to do them

• Watching Love Actually, Christmas Vacation, Elf, Santa Clause, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Home Alone. The nice thing with movies is that you can watch them any time, any where. They are great on Chicago blizzard days or I can watch them over lunch at my desk or in between my regular work day and the game start time. It also helps that none of these movies are particularly long.
• Holiday dinners with friends. Yep, I said dinners with an (s). I have friends that live in the city (where I work) and friends that live in the suburbs (close to where I live) so I try to schedule two dinners. A city dinner and a suburb dinner. Because of my schedule, this year I had to do my city dinner inbetween my work day and tip off but it still gave me a great 1.5 hours with friends that I don't get on a normal basis. The suburb dinner is this Thursday, I can't wait.
• Making and addressing holiday cards and catching up with friends who are long distance - yes almost every one does cards, but for me it's "me time" where I can relax, address cards and make a list of every one who I haven't caught up with in awhile. I try to use the month of December to call every friend in my phone list. I try to look at the 2+ hour commutes both ways as a positive in the winter. It gives me time where all I can do is drive but thanks to the Blue tooth in my car, I can hands free wise talk to all of my friends (or at least leave them messages anyway).  
• watching Nutcracker if all else fails, at least listening to the Nutcracker music. I have always felt the need for the Nutracker around the holidays. I am not sure if it's because of all the toy figures that you see around the holidays or perhaps it's just part of a nostalgic feeling that won't go away. Either way the Nutcracker is a must. The last few years have been a bit challenging to get to but luckily I have a few different CDs with nutcracker music to keep my spirits boosted through December.
• Making peppermint almond bark with the hubs. Every year around December the husband tells me last minute that he needs a treat for work. Last year I told him he had to help if he wanted it made. He did and it was so much fun that I think we'll be doing it again together this year. I do love making holiday cookies but it's been harder and harder to find the time to do them. I think that's part of what makes the peppermint almond bark so fun. It's super quick and easy to do, it smells so yummy and you can always try to do little things to make it a little different.
• NO Shopping. My goal is to get it all done prior to December because let's face it...after reading my above schedule and thinking about working 10+ hours a day there just isn't time for it. Also, if I keep a goal of getting my holiday gift shopping done before December, my gifts (I feel anyway) tend to be more meaningful and aren't items that I just bought because I had to buy something.

Do you do any fun holiday traditions to get you through December?