Pre-Holiday Stress
'Tis the season...and for the first time in my life I'm not feeling much stress at the holidays. Thankfully.
My wonderful husband taped over 100 photos into our holiday cards last weekend while I addressed envelopes and wrote in my personal message. Even taking the photo for the card wasn't too stressful - the boys didn't self destruct, they actually smiled, and it was after 8pm when the photo session was initiated (post-bath for clean babes).
In terms of my holiday shopping, I started in January of this year. Yes, January. When I find something, I make the purchase. Nothing is worse than braving the mall with a toddler in their terrible twos stage and an infant who wants to constantly eat at this time of year, let alone when you can actually wheel a stroller in the mall without stopping short, bumping into things, or trying to avoid those lovely shoppers who feel compelled to make the world move around THEM. As of right now, I have one more small gift to purchase...and if I don't, I have something in my "back-up" stash that will do. I'm waiting for our annual holiday calendar of the boys to arrive, but besides those, everything else is wrapped and under the tree (or already shipped). Phew.
I have my marching orders for what I'm bringing where on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Nothing terribly difficult, and nothing I can't do that morning. This afternoon, as we're expecting about a foot of fluffy white snow and my loving husband is coming home early, my boys and I are going to bake up a storm of cookies. I'm not feeling pressured or short of time in baking either. I realize that in one evening I can whip up several different batches of holiday cookies that I then dole out and bring with us on our travels and wrap up for friends and family.
My final project of the holiday season is knitting my youngest a red and white Christmas stocking that matches the one I made my oldest on his first Christmas two years ago. It's a big stocking, and up until last night I hadn't had time to start the project. I did jump in with two feet and feel like another 2 or 3 evenings and it will be done. It's a quick knit, but it's a big stocking.
So, instead of running around at the very last moment and having the house completely torn apart trying to decorate, things surprisingly were finished early this year...even despite having major back problems. I finished my steroid last week and have been feeling mostly back to normal the past few days. I did feel some aching in my back last night as I shelled and deveined 3 lbs of shrimp (yeah, fun is), but that was fleeting. I feel well enough to be out in the snow with my son, but still cautious that any quick movement or heavy lighting/pulling/pushing can literally throw my back not only into spasm, but might get me an operation for Christmas. I was a bit shocked to hear my chiropractor tell me on Monday as I was relating how good I was feeling that she really expected me to have surgery. Surgery, really. I'm surprised that a chiropractor would actually say that aloud...and glad that I'm doing much better as it's fairly certain I might be awaiting surgery right now.
So, although stress isn't good for my Sjogren's or my back, it seems that in a time where I thought I would be pretty highly stressed, I'm actually able to enjoy the holiday. Maybe after 30 something years I'm finally figuring things out. I did make a garland just for our light post this year...I didn't make the one for around the door. Maybe I'm just learning to let some things go...
I'm off to fill the house with the wonderful smell of childhood...and watch my little one enjoy sampling every creation.