Getting Into The Spirit

As the Christmas holidays approach, Laura and I have been spending time getting the new apartment ready for the holidays. We’ve discovered those little 3M removable tabs – they work great for hanging Christmas lights in windows. Since we’re in an apartment these days, we don’t want to leave to many nail holes behind – especially since I’ve already done quite a bit of damage installing the surround sound speakers. So, we’ve hung lights in our dining and living room windows and some on the railing of the balcony. Unfortunately, since our windows mostly overlook a cemetery, not many people besides us will benefit from the lights in our windows. Still – it feels good to put them up. Never thought I’d say that…

After too many years in which Christmas time was a painful, lonely time of year I have finally recovered some of my childhood love for the season. Laura has helped tremendously. Together, we’ve overwritten some of the most painful memories in my life – both memories of locations, seasons, and other events that I associated with a dark period in my past usually causing emotional “flinches” when they were mentioned. Now, those associations have been mostly broken [I’m sure there are a few left, but only time will discover them] and the joy can return to things like Christmas.