Acceptance.

Maybe that’s on my mind because it’s the high-intensity holiday week for many people around the world.

These celebratory times can be fun but intense.

Energy, hope and expectations run high.

And then.

Reality sets in.

Something doesn’t go QUITE as planned, and then it happens again (and again).

Here’s a short list of things that can go wrong with the holidays when reality sets in:

- You don’t quite get everything done that “MUST” be done

- Someone is disappointed with their gift (maybe that disappointed someone is you)

- Gifts are mismatched

- The dinner rolls catch fire (and that happened not once, but TWICE to us the year we served holiday dinners to our extended families in our first home.

Maybe the rolls were trying to tell us something!

It happened first when the napkin in the bread basket caught fire when it was too close to the candles on the table.

And the second time, the bag we were steaming the rolls in caught fire in a too-full oven.

- A tire goes flat and guests won’t arrive by the time the turkey comes out of the oven

- A much-wanted present is broken in transit

- A flight is delayed for the important few days together

- A traveling dog does not adjust well to a new location and her now-missing routine and surroundings (and, hey, she’d never vacationed before…and it can be stressful)

- The budget is blown as presents, exuberantly bought in the holiday fever, add up to far more cost than the buyers thought in the middle of the frenzy

And so…

You accept.

And then you adapt.

And then you recover your spirit of adventure.

And you make the best of what you have.

But it all begins at the beginning, when things start happening in ways they weren’t “supposed to.”

That’s right when you catch it.

Acceptance sounds easy enough to do, but it’s not.

Especially in the thick of the circumstances that most require it.

The first step to change is to acknowledge your circumstances as they really are.

Face the facts, quite literally.

Square up with them. Face them directly.

Sit with them for a bit.

Let them really soak in.

And be as OK with what is happening as you can be at the moment, for the circumstances aren’t going to change until you do.

Then, remember what you’re trying to achieve, in the grand scheme of things.

And know that in that grand scheme of things, your big goal can still all work out…just not quite the way you’d imagined it would.

Then do what you can to creatively adjust, using the resources you have and can conjure up.

You may find the solutions you create under pressure are fresher and more fun than the ones you worked so hard to “make” work…before you could see they didn’t, and wouldn’t.

Oh, and remember that dog visiting a new location, and not adjusting well?

It was our dog. And it was our daughter’s boyfriend’s house, where we were all gathering from various parts of the country.

The housemates who lived there had four cats, between them.

Yes, I know, I know.

We all wonder what we were even thinking, imagining that it would all work out easily.

But on paper it looked good.

The dog knew and accepted cats. She lived with and loved one as a friend.

And our daughter and her boyfriend had rescued a dog once that was so mellow that almost hoped its owner wouldn’t be found.

Weren’t all dogs like that?

Actually, no.

Not ours.

And so, when our golden retriever was following her retriever nose, she found the first cat’s hidden lair, under an upstairs back bedroom bed.

The cat fled down the stairs in terror, flew across the dining room, and scrambled up the window screen, dog racing closely behind.

The cat, having scaled the window screen, clung there until she was safely picked off.

And we, the various owners of the various pets, pow-wowed to try to figure out how to make the real life situation work.

I, for one, grabbed the leash and took her for a long, long walk to drain her anxious, excess energy off and give the others time to think.

And the dog?

For the rest of the visit, she wouldn’t go anywhere NEAR the stairs leading up to the hidden lair. It was intriguing, yes, but clearly FAR too dangerous.

Well, adventure aside, everyone survived, animals and people, too.

So whatever adventure your holidays bring, you will survive them, too.

The good adventure that will finally emerge, despite your well-honed plans all starts with acceptance.