baby steps to Christmas...

Well it has been a long few weeks in the Leach household. I am finally feeling better and more like myself - back to normal in a sense and ready to get on with life. Whew. What a process. (To catch up, click here). We are still coping and coming to terms with our loss. It is hard some days when we see a certain commercial or get another piece of mail or phone call from our Health Care provider congratulating us ... but life goes on. And we are starting to look forward to the holidays once again. 

Of course, along with the holiday spirit comes the anxiety and stress - mainly due to our financial situation. After three weeks of agonizing over it, thinning out the gift list and ultimately insisting that we just cannot buy gifts for anyone this year I have finally decided to let it go. We will make do. It's not that serious. We both love Christmas time and everything that comes along with it. After everything we have been through I think we deserve to have that happiness. And if it means shoveling a few more dollar signs onto the credit card heap then so be it. We will be cutting back naturally but at least we won't miss out entirely. 

We will soon be tagging our Christmas tree, watching the annual specials and decorating our home with red and green. It gives me something to look forward to. This morning I bought some wrapping paper, tags and Christmas cards. Just easing into it all. I put them up in the closet with the rest of the holiday decor. I even lit my North Pole candle. Baby steps.