I always tend to write about what’s going on in my life, often as a way of working through situations for myself. When I sat down to write this article, thinking in terms of the holidays, the only thing I could think of was what I am having to do – make the best of a very difficult situation that just happened to occur during the holidays! Perhaps some of you are going through similar challenges – whether created by illness or life situations so in the spirit of helping one another, I’ll share what’s going on with me.

We have lived in our home for 11 years now. It is full of “my stuff.” I have put in about 1,000 perennial plants in my gardens over the years. We had just decided my husband was not going to apply for any positions elsewhere and we were going to stay here for another 8 years until he can retire. Well, his company had different plans – they offered him a promotion to a job he did not even apply for, which is fabulous… except it’s 500 miles away!
Just when we had done a complete bath renovation and a lot of other improvements to the house, we have to move -and fast. They gave him a week’s notice and he had to go. He will not be able to return home until the actual move, so all of the duties connected with selling the house and preparing for the move are on ME. And I’m not in the best of health – I have several physical things going on that make it difficult for me to be on my feet. As my daughter would say, time to “man up.” (I always tell her that should be “WOman up!”)
Looking for a new home and preparing to sell the old one is not the happiest way to spend the weeks before Christmas! Thinking about leaving my 20 and 21 year old kids here (their lives are pretty established and they don’t want to go) is killing me. The idea of moving five dogs and three cats, a cockatiel and goldfish is overwhelming. But the schnauzer rescue work can’t stop just because I’m in a weird situation. I had a new rescue pup come in just last week.
I always believe everything happens for a reason and if you recall the “Zen Redecorating” and other articles about the dejunking project I did over the past year – now I am so grateful I did that. It makes things so much easier now.
I have had to sit down and think about what is REALLY crucial for me to enjoy the holidays, with virtually no spare time and the need to pack things UP, not get more things OUT. So I have put up a tiny two foot tall tree which is sitting on my kitchen table, decorated with my glass hanging objects taken down from the windows. There’s a pretty candle centerpiece my daughter helped me pick out along with the lights she came over and surprised me with by hanging. I’m giving family and friends homemade peanut brittle and my handmade jewelry, rather than going out shopping. I bought my kids’ presents on eBay and elsewhere online.
I plan to cook a special meal with our favorite treats on Christmas Day for just me and the kids and we will phone Dad so he can enjoy it with us, if only virtually. Christmas cards? They will be electronic ones rather than the mailed kind this year and I hope my friends understand. The sentiments are the same by whatever method. My treat to ME (for surviving the month!) will be a Clair Burke Christmas Memories candle, my favorite scent, and a little bouquet of red and white carnations which I will turn into an arrangement with some pine and cedar gathered from my trees. I plan to take my daughter on ONE shopping trip to the mall, since we always enjoy that time together.
My doggies will be wearing handmade scarves and I’ll take a cool holiday picture of them to treasure.
When I think about what I always do to make Christmas special to me, it’s “decorating the dogs,” having the Christmas scents in the air, Christmas music which I have in abundance, special food, and most of all being surrounded by friends and family – now even more precious since I will soon be so far away from them all. The boxes of ornaments, tinsel, wreaths, and countless ho-ho knick-knacks can stay in storage for this holiday. So I think the moral of this story is “Focus and Simplify.”
Wishing all of you readers your most joyous holiday season ever!
Article submitted by: Sheila Talley, ButYouDontLookSick.com, © 2006