Happy Sunday, and hello from Sydney! It’s Catherine Greer writing to you — author of The 10 Minute Fix and Small Steps Are Perfect.

Eeeep! 13 days until Christmas, and I’ve been zooming around with work and writing and planning a Christmas party. I haven’t done much baking yet (and baking is my thing!) but I finished shopping in November so I can enjoy all the special moments of Christmas.

Except there’s this: I haven’t been enjoying. I’ve been rushing. You?

Let me tell you a funny story. On Tuesday, I decided to get our piano tuned. Haven’t had it done in seven years, and the tuner—a lovely guy—had one request BEFORE he came over in the evening.

“Please make sure the room is well-ventilated. ALL I NEED IS GOOD VENTILATION.”

Easy, I thought. I’d open both windows beside the piano and give him all the fresh air he needed.

But my son who’s at uni ALSO has this hobby of doing Texas barbecue and smoking meat, and he’d made (from scratch) this huge smoked ham that wasn’t quite cooked in time for a Christmas party he was attending, so he had to finish it off in my oven.

At 250 degrees (which is 482 F).

The piano tuner came. The kitchen started to look like this.

Then the whole house looked that way.

There was smoke BILLOWING from the oven, the piano tuner was humming, my husband was manually turning off all our smoke detectors which kept announcing “WARNING, SMOKE DANGER, ALARM WILL BE LOUD!” I was fanning smoke with a tea towel, my son was charging around late for the party waiting for this 10 kilogram leg of pork to cook, my husband was turning off smoke alarms and meanwhile we were trying to keep everything calm and VENTILATED for Andy, who was tuning the piano.

OH MY LORD.

I’m cry-laughing just remembering how funny and stressful this was.

The situation reminded me of Christmas. We rush around and we try to do special things and there’s smoke and food and kids and piano tuners and ho ho ho, merrily we go…making the magic and taking care of everyone and everything.

And maybe we’re tired.

And maybe we need a rest.

Remember the secret, my friends: you need to take care of you. Light a candle, enjoy the season, make a hot drink and laugh.

Here’s what I have for you today: my favourite Ram Dass quote.

On we go, bringing the joy this holiday season.

I’m so very honoured and happy to be here every Sunday, walking you home.

Love, Catherine x

PS.

• Andy is the loveliest piano tuner and so reasonable. He gave me permission to tell you if need a tune up, please do give him a call in Sydney on 0408 979 819. He works so hard at his craft! I hope we can all give him a little Christmas cheer and a business boost. (Please don’t mention the SMOKE.)

• White Chocolate Raspberry Berry Shortbread here (at my previous author website blog)!