When the Christmas tree falls over!

Yes---- I am laughing through the holidays. I am working on practicing the purposeful use of humor during times that I feel especially stressed. I am sure that you are also trying to get the traditional preparations finished -making cookies, wrapping presents, creating photo books, sending the annual newsy letter. While my mind tells me to relax and enjoy what I am doing....I often find that same mind racing ahead to what needs to be done next.

We had two of our granddaughters over Thanksgiving weekend and took them to cut down the Christmas tree. The delight in the eyes of the 4 year old as the tree fell over was really fun, as was the ride on the horse drawn wagon with the 20 month old calling out to the "horsie". We put the tree up and secretly laughed about the 45 ornaments put by the kids on the bottom 2 branches with the remaining 5 ornaments on the top. The older one made a parade of the nativity figures, as she carefully put up the crib that has been in my family for almost a century now. We listened to Christmas songs and had a grand time.

That evening an exhausted Grandma and Grandpa were finishing cleaning up the kitchen when I glanced into the living room to see the newly decorated tree slowly topple to the floor with ornaments and lights scattering. I quickly realized that the worst part of this disaster was the water soaking into the oriental rugs and YIKES I had put a bit of bleach into the water. As we picked up the tree, I remember telling my husband that we would laugh about this someday, but it sure was not funny right now. I decided to decorate that tree that night so the girls would wake up in the morning to enjoy the tree. It also gave me a chance to balance those ornaments! We did create some great holiday memories.

My wish for you is that you will enjoy the holidays and find ways to use humor (on purpose) to create a season filled with laughter.

Look for my next post in January of 2011!