Getting into the season

Merry Christmas - 2011

What a difference a year can make. 

The tree is up, the house is decorated and most of the presents have been bought.  Wrapping will be done over the next few days, then we're off to the city on Friday for our annual visit to see the tree.  Before you know it, it will be Christmas Eve, then Christmas.

Last year on our annual trip into the city I was still in the middle of my breast reconstruction and my back was killing me from the surgery and the expansion process.  What a miserable day that was.  I felt like Debbie Downer -  in addition to how badly I felt physically, I had just started taking the first month of my 5 years of Tamoxifen and became very depressed, an unanticipated side effect of many aromatase inhibitors.  I was trying very hard to be happy, but happy I was NOT.  The whole holiday season last year was pretty miserable.

Fast forward to today.  My current state of mind:  peaceful, calm, joyful, anticipatory and grateful.  

This week I made the leap and registered to attend the National Breast Cancer Coalition Summit in Washington DC, in May.  They're the group that has a proclamation to end breast cancer by 2020.  It feels like 2012 is going to be a good year.  I sense new things on the horizon, don't know what they will be, but something's coming....something good.

Happy Holiday's.  Hang out with your family, relax, don't worry about the gifts, sleep a lot, don't go to malls, watch a lot of funny movies, read some good books and enjoy the season. 

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." - Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby