At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year. Thomas Tusser

After spending a good part of last week hustling to prepare for Christmas determined-with-list-in-hand-shopping all afternoon Wednesday; one last getaway and leisurely shopping experience with Nick in New York City all day Thursday; and smart shopping at the outlet mall a little bit on Fridayit was so wonderful to kick back and relax with dear friends from Kentucky, who visited us for the weekend at our home in Connecticut. We spent our time on a leisurely stroll around town, in leisurely conversation on sofas around the fire, and by breaking bread around my dining room table. No scurrying around. No serious deadlines to meet. No long lines to contend with.

As I sit here and look at my own calendar for December, I imagine that it looks very much like yours. Too many appointments in too little space. Double-bookings in the same exact time slot. Near panic at the realization that something will get left out of the mix: that perfect gift will not be found; that perfect lunch date will not work out; that perfect party will not be attended.

The nearly universal common denominator among all mothers is the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed by the demands of spouse, kids and home life. The near-constant shuffling of little people from school to lessons to activities to friends homes; the never-ending cycle of grocery shopping-meal preparation-cleanup-and-laundry; and the nearly-impossible requirement of keeping ourselves in peak-performance physical shapeall on too-little sleepbaffles and confounds even the best of us. And the math never gets more complicated than during the Holidays. We become overworked, overstretched, and overburdened. I feel it every year. I know you do, too.

My visit with old friends this weekend validated what Ive always knownbut have often been simply too busy to stand back and rightfully acknowledge: hustle stops bustle around a table.

When alland I mean allis said and done, the holidays really boil down to: faith, family and friends. And if we whack that out of perspective, if we wrongly juggle the mix, or if we lose track of the things for which were scurrying, we miss out on the season.

When my husband and kids and I sat down around our dining room table to share several meals with two of our dearest friends in the whole world, I was able to leave the hustle and bustle of Christmas behind me. We were able to enjoy the food we had prepared, the catching-up-with-each-other-conversation we had longed for, the break in the routine we had looked forward to, and the ambience we had lovingly designed. With candles aglow and silver sparkling, the cocoon of home and friendship took over to do what it has always done best: provide love and safety and shelterand relief from the busyness of the world. Hustle stopped bustle this weekend at my dining room table.

I know this sounds trite. Oversimplified. Almost like a duh, yeah. But when were too busy running around, too busy making everyone else happy and too busy doing the Holidays, we truly lose sight of what it takes to fully enjoy and appreciate them. Stopping smack in the middle of the Christmas season to sit down at a table with best friendsto eat and to drink, to laugh and to cry, to share and to praywas one of my favorite gifts. I told Kathy: You are my Christmas gift.

One of my favorite Scripture verses is: There is a friend who sticketh closer than a brother. We all know that we cant choose family, but we can choose friends. Some of us are blessed with family who we would also choose as friends. We acknowledge that we are blessed indeed. And that we are doubly blessed when we have good friends whom we can count on and lean on, through the good times and the bad. With whom we can both celebrate and mourn.

And its rarely more obvious than at Christmas.

As you go through these next few weeks leading up to Christmas, I encourage you to gather around a table. Your own or that of your friends. Or at a club or favorite restaurant (as I got to do in New York when Nick and I met an old high school friend of mine for lunch. Wow! Two old-friend-treats in one week!) Its going to be hard for you to fit this in during this month. Itll stop your momentum. Break your shopping rhythm. Interfere with your chores. Or your workout or your hair appointment or your pedicure. But the mere act of stoppingof deliberate pause, deliberate slowing down and deliberate diningmay possibly prove to be your best Christmas gift ever.

I feel truly blessed to enjoy an overflow of friends. I often feel that my cup runneth over. That people move into my life in the most surprising ways. And enrich it and expand it by encouragement and compassion.

I pray that you also have not only an abundance of friends with whom you can celebrate the Holidays: I pray that you take the time to do just that.