I am taking a deep breath and enjoying the day today.  How about you?  I recently wrote a post about my struggle with keeping the JOY in Christmas this year. The struggle has been real but I am winning,

Last week Chris and I packed up and moved out of the house we have been renting in Dothan, Alabama for the past 11 months.  We had furnished that house with the thought in mind that we would be buying a house in Dothan or a beach house in Florida.  When that did not make any sense to do any more due to Chris’s travel and our realization that we wanted to buy a house in North Carolina we were “stuck” with even more furniture than we needed.

Throughout this past year we have definitely gotten rid of a lot of possessions.  We gave a lot of furniture and household items away in Mason City. When we moved to North Carolina we have continued to give even more away and now we were faced with moving more furniture into our already crowded house.  So we got rid of some of the items in the house in Dothan and rented a Uhaul and made the trek to North Carolina.

Today I feel like I can finally breathe again.  The stress of the past year has lifted and I am feeling much lighter in a lot of ways.  It is a truly wonderful feeling.

When I look back on this past year we have been through a bit.  That might be an understatement.  I usually try to take it all in stride but you know what?  This year was pretty phenomenal when it all boiled down to what we did.  But we made it and that is what I always preach.  The sun ALWAYS comes up and we always make it through tough times.

We had some great help on the other end in Dothan loading up the UHaul.  Chris works with some amazing people who helped us muscle the furniture into the truck.  We could not have done it without them.  We had a great relationship with our landlady and left the house in the capable hands of her cleaner so I did not have to add that to my to do list. And then we started the drive to North Carolina which went amazingly well.  I followed Chris in the rental car and we found our way home through the windy roads .  We had an early morning Starbucks stop and even though I spelled my name it did not translate to either the person who made my sandwich or my drink.

But now we are home and happily settling in.  We hired a couple of guys from a moving company on this end to unload the heavy stuff off of the truck and that was probably the best money we have ever spent.  It took them an hour to relocate furniture in the house and move new stuff in off the truck and it saved us a lot of wear and tear on our bodies which was a very good thing.

Now I feel like I can take some deep breaths, relax and enjoy the rest of the week.  We are going to have a simple Christmas with just Aaron (and grand kitty Diego, of course) but it is going to be so wonderful.  Truly wonderful.

It has been a year of change but a year of huge blessings.  Once I remembered to relax and just enjoy things it got much better.  Oh –and having a wonderful work family for Chris with the Dunbarton Group has made a world of difference.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner last week in Enterprise at the Historic  Rawls Bed and Breakfast and you know what?  This group is family to me and I am so happy that we are a part of this amazing and talented group.
If you are feeling less than calm this week take a cue from me.  Step back, take a couple of deep breaths and just reflect on the blessings of the year.  I am pretty sure you can come up with a pretty nice list.