I decided to put up a Merry Christmas video on my YouTube channel with clips from the last couple of years. I think the video turned out well and tells a little story. Well, kind of , in a literal over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go sort of way. It got me thinking about the places we have been and longing for places we want to go in the future. Longing for sharing the sparkle and joy with loved ones as is our usual tradition , going to places with Christmas specials , travel, eating out, and seeing the kids have occupied my mind. Most of the videos are my home town, the woods , Greenfield village Christmas and the neighborhood.

As the video ends, with its music drifting off and the snow flakes gently falling I am ripped back to reality. No travel. No Christmas Specials, light shows or concerts. No face to face family visits or gift exchanges. I am sitting here eating oatmeal, yuck, drinking coffee and longing for the days of old when as a kid I would eat pancakes, sugary cereal like Life, and eat all the Christmas cookies I wanted. Oh those were the days. Sugarplum fairies, gingerbread men, candy canes and pies with whipped cream a mile high. Now I understand why people crochet food amigurumis. I am starting to really feel sorry for myself. Reminded me of watching the scene in the Grinch who stole Christmas:

“He took the Who’s feast, he took the Who pudding, he took the roast beast. He cleaned out that ice box as quick as a flash. Why, the Grinch even took their last can of Who hash.” Darn old Grinch tried to steal the Who’s Christmas joy. Damn Pandemic, I was letting it steal my Christmas joy,

I decided it was time for action. So, I am retraining myself in health and exercising twice a day for 5 to 10 min on the rowing machine. It is great! I have found an exercise that doesn’t cause immediate hip pain and I like it. I need to break it up because rowing is really, really hard to do for a long period of time, you know long periods like 5 minutes, lols. Plus, my body likes short movements , more often. The garage gym is really nice, convenient and germ free. So glad that we were able to invest in it . It would have never happened a few years ago because it is so expensive.

So today , I am starting a counting my blessings exercise through the New Year. I have been pretty focused over the last month on the things that I don’t have right now, or cannot have, or should not have . Focused on the people and places I cannot , should not, won’t go due to the pandemic. I decided just to STOP all that. Mind shift engaged today. Action number 2.

Today’s blessing to count is that I have everything I could ever NEED sitting in my house. It’s quite humbling when I think about it. I have at my fingertips enough stuff to not only get through today but to get through for a very long time. What a blessing that I have taken for granted. I don’t need any more. I am very aware of years when we didn’t have quite everything we needed and that makes me realize the depth of how we have been blessed over our lifetimes.

Merry Christmas !

Vicki