Happy Crazidays

I am not out shopping After-Christmas sales. I am sitting here in the house alone while kids/DH are off in different directions, running errands, some gone back home. It is the most quiet it has been in days.
We had a wonderful holiday time, not only with our out-of-town kids visiting, but our in-town kids celebrating. Over the past few years, we have tried to not go insane over the holidays. I want it to be much more than the stores would have you believe: Christmas is NOT to buy more crap for people that they can't use. The point of Christmas to me is to stop and take notice of surroundings and just enjoy being with your family. Here's an idea of gifts we gave to each other:
Went to a used book sale in November, a fund raiser for our son's all-night grad party coming up in June. I was amazed by how many wonderful books there were, some obviously not even cracked open. Just about every single person on "the list" got some used books. I think we spent a total of about $25 that day and got probably in the neighborhood of 50 books. It was so cool. New ones/barely used ones/some still in plastic(!) and others with not even a crease. It was awesome. 15 people got books that way. I helped my kids and grand kids make grocery bags out of recycled fabric. DH and I got requested chocolate bars and home baked goods, and I scored 2 GIANT boxes of Jr. Mints. I am going to Weight Watcher HELL after this. No, I won't eat them all at once! I plan on making them last all year in the mini-fridge and divvy them out carefully to reward myself for exercise. Haha. My son got a giant container of Pub Mix, the ubiquitous mix of pretzels,rye bread crisps, cheeze-its etc. DH also went to Costco and bought our son Pub Mix and was so thrilled with his purchase I felt badly that I had to break it to him that I had already gotten some, hence, our son got two containers.


Another great thing I got for Christmas from Behcet's was about 5 new or forming lesions in my mouth. This was not my idea of a great gift, but it is what it is.

I don't want to focus on that. I want to focus on how great DH is doing. I know this whole stroke thing has been sobering to our family, him in particular. This has been a trying year...yet...it has been wonderful too! I so love having him home on a nearly full time basis. We are enjoying working on projects around the house, going to movies, reading more for fun (not just for his work). I also think that secretly he has been wanting to retire for a long time, and even though this isn't the way he thought of retiring, it has still been good for him to slow down and enjoy life a little more. 

It feels like a breath of fresh air to not have him working 8 hours a day, then coming home and writing papers, grading tests, etc for another 2 or 3 hours a day and weekends. I know this has also been hard making instant life changes, but for someone who hates change, well, he has learned to roll with the punches.  Here's to rolling with the punches
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