December 12th, 2017

I had a few spare minutes yesterday afternoon before I needed to start dinner and decided be productive with my time.  I began to haul out a few Christmas decorations and try to Holiday-up the house a bit.  I've been preoccupied with other things lately and only just realized that Christmas, which seems so far away, is actually arriving in two weeks.  Yikes!

​One of the things I did was to set up a table decoration.  It's one that I put out every year since I received it.  It was a gift from my sister and I really love it.  In all the years I've used this decoration, I have never once broken any part of it.  Until yesterday.  Turns out traditional fragile Christmas balls and tile floors is not a great mix when being handled by someone as accident prone as I am.  Oh dear.  

​I was sad that I broke it but I recovered, cleaned it up and I moved on.  It was only one tiny little ornament after all, no big deal.  The rest of the decoration is fine and probably nobody will notice that absence of one small Christmas ball but me, right?   Ok since that went so well, I decided to at least put up the tree.  I won't get around to decorating it for a few days but at least I can get the thing set up right?

It's one of those pre-lit trees.  I can build it, clearly, that's not hard.  The biggest part on the bottom, smallest part on the top, the remainder in between. No problem.  But apparently getting the entire tree to light up is beyond my meager capabilities.  I tried everything I could think of and in fact spent so much frustrating time trying to make more than the bottom third of the tree light up that well, needless to say, dinner was a little late last night.  Once I am determined to solve a problem it becomes a mission.  I never did figure this one out.

​But at this point, I'm not surprised that things are not going smoothly.  The very first Christmassy thing I did was to buy a wreath.  It was a very specific choice which I was kind of tickled about because of it's capability to light up. But, s it turns out,  I cannot plug it in because the exterior plug is on the left side of the front door. The side of the door that opens.  I'm sure there is a way around that but so far, I haven't figured it out.  In the photo, perhaps you can see that ​the plug is to the left of the light fixture and the door opens from the left.  If I plug in the wreath, we won't be able to open the door!  Dang!

 None of these issues is life-altering.  And seriously, I'm not angry or upset at all. In fact, it got me thinking about seasonal problems.  How hectic the season is, the decisions we have to make about which party or gathering or event we can reasonably attend with a calendar already overflowing with invitations and obligations.  Menus and baking and standing in line at the post office.  Weather surprises and gift wrapping and Christmas card writing.  Decorating and stocking stuffing and purchasing presents.  There is so much going on and so many ways things can go wrong.

​And then there is the biggest problem of the holiday season.  The one that has plagued me (and I'm sure others) for as long as I've lived.  The scariest part, the worst bit, the part that can go the most wrong,  my arch  nemesis:

The bathroom scale.  Eeeeeek!

​I'll get back on track after the holidays.  Ultimately the tree will be properly lit and decorated, I'm sure other ornaments will break, the wreath will be lit or not and it really doesn't matter either way. And whatever pounds find me during this season of indulgence and overflowing generosity  I will make go away, eventually, afterwards.  And I will not beat myself up over any of it.

​After all, this is the season of forgiveness. I can even forgive myself.