5 Ways to Do the Holidays, RA-Style
抛出不再适合您的传统是一个不错的起点。
Traditions are meaningful.他们将我们与过去联系起来，并在我们每年重新创造假期的魔力时，为美好的回忆做出了贡献。但是传统也可以扼杀增长，使我们无法转变为庆祝版本，可能对您和周围的每个人都更好。而且，当您有类风湿关节炎（RA）进行传统的假期习俗修补可能是必要的 - 这是使您能够参与并享受而不必最终享受传统的节后耀斑的事情。
如果改变传统的想法使您感到焦虑，请记住，随着孩子或伴侣的发展，您已经适应了过去的其他变化，随着下一代接管托管的家庭。尝试查看将RA作为需要转变的另一个生活事件而不是批发革命的变化。这五个假期的调整灵感来自我的书慢性圣诞节：度过慢性病的假期can help you revel in the season without paying the price.
Make Joy—Not Tradition—Your Priority
You may not be using Marie Kondo’s minimalist approach to decluttering your home, but you can adopt it for sorting out your holiday season. Leading with the question “它给我带来欢乐吗？”可以帮助您拒绝对强制性但不愉快的任务和事件。
Eliminating that party hosted by your third cousin twice removed, skipping the gift for that person who always vaguely sneers at your efforts, or ditching the cards to people you don’t know anymore can get rid of a lot of stress, leaving more space for the things that bring you comfort and joy. Admitting that your strength and stamina are finite may give others permission to open up about their own limitations (exhaustion, not really enjoying the usual cherry pie, and so on).
保留对每个人真正有意义的一两个传统，并脱掉那些不必需的传统，有可能大大减少您的任务列表。
计划耀斑Instead of Reacting to Them
When you’ve lived with RA for a while, you begin to see the patterns in flare triggers and for many of us, that includes big events and the associated overdoing. What if instead of handling flares after they’ve already started, this year you plan for them in advance?
提前致电您的风湿病医生，讨论如何提供帮助。对于某些人来说，这可能包括类固醇射击，以防泼尼松爆发的“恰好”处方或其他类型的调整处方。您还应该为家人和朋友准备新的假期方法。提前谈论事情可以帮助大家一起改变自己的观点和传统。
Pace Yourself
Start prepping for the holidays as early as possible, ideally starting the process right around the time your neighbors are setting out their jack-o-lanterns. It might feel forced, but remember: Pacing the preparations is one of the biggest gifts you can give future you.
My family started around Halloween, creating a list of grocery items and added the nonperishable items a few at a time on weekly trips to the supermarket. Our goal was to have everything in house by the end of November. Pacing myself also includes having a file on my computer to which I add links to perfect gifts throughout the year so I don’t panic at the last minute.
If you like the idea of finishing your Christmas shopping in the summer, remember that discipline and a notebook are your friends. If you have all the presents done in August, you shouldn’t pick up that very cool ideal gift you see two weeks before the big day in December—it blows your budget and negates your efforts to prepare ahead of time. If, like me, you have brain fog, it may be necessary to write down exactly what you bought for whom and where you hid those presents. This will save you from having to tear apart your home two days before Christmas Eve in an attempt to find them. Not that this has ever happened to me, of course.
使用团队方法而不是这样做All
If your most established holiday tradition is to take care of every last detail yourself, your RA is calling and it wants you to step away from the hot glue gun. After all, the holidays are a time for sharing. When everyone participating in the festivities contributes, you share the work and reduce the risk of RA flares and fatigue. But it also does more than that: It passes on the lessons and skills needed to continue the traditions that matter.
将您的孩子包括在团队中，以完成适合年龄的任务。当我和姐姐已经足够大的时候，我的母亲承担了装饰树的责任。每年我们炫耀自己的努力时，她都会说这是她见过的最美丽的树。我不再记得每棵树的外观，但是我记得当母亲说这些话时的感觉。将购物，烘烤和烹饪分配在团队中不仅仅是公平。它还创造了一个情况，每个人都是整体重要的一部分，并创造了持久的回忆。
慢一点and Enjoy the Season
如果您决定不再等到重要的一天开始享受这个季节怎么办？令人愉悦的假期喧嚣与疯狂的压力混乱之间有一条很好的界限。提前计划和提前开始可以使您开始较慢，但是很难不陷入期望和繁忙的氛围。通过安排常规时间进行休息或与一些Mulled Wine或Cocoa的经典度假电影来抵抗。
It can also be helpful to create a rule of only accepting so many invitations or paring down your lists for gifts, cards, and holiday visits. In my family, we call it giving each other “the gift of time.” That is, by removing each other from our respective shopping or obligatory visit list, we create the space to get other things done. Pro tip: Reschedule that holiday get-together to January when nothing else happens and you’d welcome a visit.
The holiday season can be a special time, but it can also be an especially stressful time. Starting the conversation about how to make it more delightful for everyone can be the first step to a valuable discussion about what is a meaningful tradition and what is a waste of time and energy. Using these five strategies to accommodate your RA can be key to creating a new tradition that is even more magical for the whole family and allows you to enjoy it, too.
