Okay, so it is technically the second day. Yesterday exhausted me, so writing a blog post did not happen. However, I set a goal to write one blog post for each day of Christmas. Trust me, I have enough to write about. Let's see if I can make it happen.
Christmas 2019 brought laughter, excitement, lots of love, and stress/anxiety/migraines. I realize most of the stress is self induced. Keeping lists of gifts, sending cards, decorating, and shaking my fists at people who don't see eye to eye with me on the whole "Christmas decorating begins the day after Thanksgiving and goes to the Epiphany." Why do I worry about these things? I have no idea. I'm convinced anxiety and stress are part of my DNA. Some would say it is due to my Enneagram Type 1 (wing 2) personality. Imagine me shrugging my shoulders since I really couldn't say. Then imagine me slowly lowering those shoulders because the tension is making it difficult to move my neck.
As always, we rocked our Advent wreath leading up to Christmas. The kids and hubs expertly ornamented the tree. Car radios tuned to three prominent Christmas only music stations. With our new and open kitchen, I expanded the Christmas decorations. We also attended Midnight Mass as usual. There was nothing to stress about. I just simply stress about everything.
Christmas day arrived and filled our day with so much joy that my anxiety disappeared faster than it took my kids to open all their presents. Ha ha ha.
Having family over to share in the joy of Christmas reminded me that in the end it doesn't matter that my new cookie recipe was too soft to use the cookie cutters or that my oldest wore his tennis shoes instead of "church" shoes to Midnight Mass. As the visiting priest pointed out on the last Sunday of Advent, Christmas is a time for families to be together. Unlike Dickens' Scrooge who wrapped himself in loneliness before encountering the ghosts of Christmas, Jesus came to be with everyone. I enjoyed being with my family so much, I barely took any pics. As self-appointed family historian, this is unusual for me. However, the memories we made acted as a great cure for my stress (and relentless migraine) without having to capture them on my phone.
I will say, one of my children asked for "one of those old fashioned cameras that pops the picture out." Perhaps the mantel of family historian is ready to be handed down?
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