Down and Out

Good-bye Christmas tree 2012. Somehow the whole process of taking down the tree makes me somewhat nostalgic. It's an official farewell to the Holiday season....a mere memory now. Christmas in the air is a recipe that goes something like the following. Ingredients......Joy, Music, Excitement, Family, Food, Money, Cleaning, Baking, Wonderment, Lights, Smells, Sights, Sounds. All the above mixed together with a teaspoon, no, tablespoon or maybe a Cup of Stress. We do it to ourselves. Or at least I do. Maybe you're smarter than I am. No matter how early I start planning our Christmas and all that goes with it, right before the actual day arrives.....I suddenly am sure it's not all done. I've forgotten something. I'm leaving this or that out. And with that stress comes distress and that, my friend, is the exact OPPOSITE of what the Season is about. So as I say Good-bye to Christmas 2012, I realize, as I do every year, that no matter what is missed, forgotten or left out....it's not about any of that. And I hope and pray that next year possibly I'll have a very faint reminder that to Stress is to Miss. And to Miss saddens the whole experience. So while this year's tree is down and out.....the memories stay...both the wonder and the joy and yes, the stress. And hopefully next year that Cup of Stress will be a Tablespoon and then possibly a Teaspoon the next year and that maybe one year, it will be a mere wisp of memory.