Stress-Free Holiday Zone

I declared our home a stress-free holiday zone this year. In fact, I put a sign on the front door stating:

Stress-Free Holiday Zone

All Ye Who Enter Must Leave Ye Worries at the Door

Prepare for Lots of Noise, Chaos, and Commotion

Also in Great Abundance Are Love, Joy, and Gratitude

One thing I have learned this year is that compared to cancer, everything else is pretty insignificant. It's all about keeping things in perspective. Also, I believe stress is a condition we create for ourselves either by the expectations we put on ourselves and/or others or by how we choose to react to the circumstances around us. These insights I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life, a life that will be more richly and fully lived as a result of these and the many other lessons learned this year from breast cancer.

It was probably the busiest Christmas I can remember, but the happiest, too. Between the sign and my new attitude, this Christmas was also the least stressful of my adult life (even though it had many elements known for contributing to stress). Since we knew I would be starting my radiation treatments sometime in December and wouldn't be able travel out of town, my family made the decision to celebrate Christmas in Toano this year. My brother, John, his partner, Eric, their nanny, Janine, and my two nephews, Kyle (5) and Daniel (2), arrived from Massachusetts the Thursday before Christmas and stayed with us until the following Thursday. My other brother, Jeff, and his wife, Julie also came from Massachusetts for the week, but the inn was full, so they stayed with Julie's parents. My Dad and Laura visited every day that my brothers were around.

A proponent of "The More the Merrier" philosophy, I extended an invitation to Bo's Dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve, for a grand total of 25 of us. On Christmas Day, we invited Bo's Mom's side of the family over for a grand total of 26 people. I had lots of helpers, and everyone brought food, so I really only had to delegate and coordinate. I also realized (after a mere 41 years) that I am not responsible for everyone else's happiness. I provided the venue, but it was up to everyone else to manage their own respective moods. This newfound knowledge has been very liberating and went a long way towards delivering a stress-free holiday - for me, anyway.

On a few occasions, family members had to remind eachother to go read the front door, but for the most part, it was just one fun week of eating, cooking, shopping, eating, talking, laughing, eating, Scrabbling, playing, and just enjoying being together... eating. I was sad to see everyone go, but Jeff is coming back to visit next month, and the family will be together again in April for my Dad's and Laura's wedding. Not to mention, we will all be together for the Pan Mass Challenge in August.

While I look forward to all of these events in the future, I learned another important lesson this year - enjoy each and every moment of NOW, even the most routine, as the present is all that any of us are guaranteed. So now that everyone is gone, it is back to our routine, and that, too, is nice.