Holiday Musings and Looking Forward
✌🏼out 2025
The holidays can be a tough time for caregivers. Beautiful and magical, but tough. We are pulled in many directions, largely responsible for the “magic making” to ensure the traditions are checked off and the warm fuzzies abound. The last school week of December we were tracking five different spirit days, school dances, cookies and gifts for the teachers. Emotionally we are holding diverging feelings and wishes for how the festivities, gift giving and time together will unfold, sometimes with family members that we aren’t particularly close with or who have very different expectations. Kids are excited, jacked up on sugar, and cycling through intervals of elation and meltdown.
Those caring for disabled and elder folks must also navigate many of these same duties and expectations, but woven in with existing medical care that doesn’t take a break for the holidays. Sometimes rather than excitement, there is sadness and longing for how things were before or how they could have been. Existing mental health challenges that may have been dormant tend to awaken and fight for attention. I’m sending love out to all of you who are struggling with any and all of the above.
I really do love the holidays but like many moms and caregivers, I can also find it stressful. I’ve tried to focus on the things that really make us happy as a family, but to be ok with imperfection and letting things go. Sometimes I succeed, often I don’t.
This is also a moment of looking back at the year that is coming to an end, and forward to a new one. I can’t say I know anyone who is sad to see 2025 in the rear view. Our government is broken and waging a war on people of color, women and democracy itself. Life goes on and those of us privileged enough to do so go through our days like things are normal, except none of this is normal; we are smiling while our nervous systems are on high alert. It is deeply disturbing and exhausting.
But when everything is broken, sometimes that’s the nudge you need to do something bold and different. 2026 will mark a new chapter for me and my family in many ways, which I’ll look forward to sharing with you along the way.
My More Of List for 2026
In the past couple years, I have shared my preferred way of thinking about New Years resolutions. Rather than focusing on fixing vices or buying into optimization culture, I like to think about what I simply want to make room for more of in my life. The things that serve me well, that make me happy and fulfilled and more aligned with the life I want to live. Here is my More Of list for 2026:
More time on creative hobbies. One of mine has always been baking. But recently, my middle kid took up an interest in sewing, and I busted out my great aunt’s 1947 Singer sewing machine and re-learned, then taught my son, how to use it. He successfully sewed a shirt and pants, and got me excited to start sewing projects of my own. He also wants to start watercolor painting and I think I might take that up with him, too. It’s so fun and satisfying, both the projects themselves and the connection and creative time with my kid.
More presence, spontaneity and adventure. This one sounds cliche but there’s probably a reason for that - these are the moments we end up cherishing. Allowing yourself time in the moment each day, rather than constantly obsessing over productivity and what’s next is just… a better quality of life. Yet many of us struggle to allow it. Maybe it is the fact that I have a middle schooler and it has hit me that his years as a kid in our home are numbered, but I have been stopping to intentionally notice and be truly present in small moments more. It sparks gratitude and happiness that feels like the best drug. 2026 will definitely include more intentional presence and healthy risk-taking - i.e. more moments that feel like truly LIVING.
More nurturing the relationships and communities that are a positive force in my life: Relationships are effort. Participating in community somehow feels so harder than ever, and simultaneously that much more important. I haven’t always been great at giving them the attention they deserve. I want to truly nurture the relationships that feed my soul and lift me up, and let go of fighting too hard for the ones that do not.
I would love to hear you share any of your “more ofs” for 2026!
I am loving looking through the treasure trove of letters and historical documents that my dad collected and saved. They include letters he wrote to his mother while living in Iran and traveling through Israel and India. Old photos, article clippings, and other artifacts from when he was young, and of his parents and grandparents.
One of these artifacts was an editorial that my paternal grandfather - who died before I was born - wrote from his position as Editor of the small town Enumclaw Courier-Herald on New Years, 1960. Sixty-six years later, we may be further from that last goal than ever, but it remains one worth fighting for.
Wishing each of you peace, love, and the strength to continue caring for yourself and others this holiday season. I am grateful for this space and this community, which is one I look forward to continuing to nurture in 2026.
xo Anna
