Dilution and Distillation: The Holidays 2011 !

First things first, before you go away anywhere, let me tell you this is not a science article and yes it is related to the holidays.Then again, I am going to go ahead and generally define these two terms, even though many of us may know what they mean. 'Dilution' refers to a reduction in the concentration of something, for example a chemical. 'Distillation' refers to the process of collection of condensed vapors after a liquid has boiled.I bet many of you have already been reminded of the old school days and science classes so I am going stop with the science and get to the other part, the part about the holidays as it says in the title.(Ha!Ha!) which is how these two processes apply to our social lives and how it affects our kids.With the holidays upon us, we are all eager to celebrate and have a great time but even as we think of these wonderful times, there is also a part of us that has already started stressing about getting the house ready, or baking that batch of cookies, or buying all the gifts on time.Many of us, right now, are in the midst of getting ready for Halloween, which is right around the corner!There are years when we do it all without a sweat and then there are also those when we just make it by doing the bare minimum coz' we just couldn't squeeze everything in.

Well, I , for one , can recollect what my mom did different from my grandma on the holidays and then with a good measure of guilt, realize what I do on the holidays in that context!I surely do not bake/cook enough or for that matter decorate as much as she did. I look at this with guilt coz' I have come to realize that each year counts, that each year is stored in my kids minds as a memory log entry(if you may) just like I have from my years as a kid.Not only are we the social role models as we do the little and big things to get ready for the holidays, we are also the ones who pass it on to the next generation.And this is where I use the term 'dilution' to say that we dilute the traditions and with every generation that passes, this increases to leave us with not a very potent form of our own traditions or customs or values.Now, I , by no means suggest that we start sowing our own grains or start wearing lion skin (!!) but we can try to put in that extra effort into things, even if it means, somehow, trying to call forth that energy to bake the batch of cookies with our kids or carving the pumpkin or putting up that huge Mummy in our driveway! Just imagine our kids will have THAT one more story to tell their kids, about how the Mummy almost fell on grandma(u) or really spooked grandpa(u) out that evening!

So PLAN TO GO FULL SWING these holidays. Start the planning early, and get everyone in the family, from the youngest to the oldest, involved. Delegate specific tasks to each member, imagine what greater opportunity than having the kids involved in something that teaches them responsibility, managing finances better and getting creative all in one, while at the same time being involved in getting ready for the holidays together as a FAMILY.Just imagine the dinner conversations as each of you shares about how she/he got his/her part done just in time or what exactly they did to make it happen.For me this means that I am going to delegate the job of decorating the house for Halloween to the kids after giving them a set amount of money and for me putting out invitations and arranging for food so we can have a small get together.My spouse can be in charge of games and I think it will evolve from there!

Moral of the story is " Do not dilute coz' we want to leave the kids (the future generations) with potent concentrations after the distillation is done"!!