Taking Down The Tree…

When it comes to putting up the tree there is a certain amount of excitement and anticipation for the holidays and presents and Santa and Ho Ho Ho! When it comes to taking down the tree, there is no one around to be found to help. Everyone gets busy after New Year’s Day. It’s back to work and back to school and that leaves good, old Mom holding the bag (whether she works or not).
I hate taking down the tree. It’s the second most depressing thing to New Year’s Eve. It’s like the final nail in the coffin. The last lingering remnants of last year. The message is clear…it’s time to move on. Start over. Do better. Don’t make the same mistakes. Change!

I guess you could see it as the end of something with dread or the beginning of something with hope. And I think, as I take down the tree this year, I am going to think about last year and what I can do to make this year better for me and those I love and care about. It all has to start with me. I have to take better care of myself, as I have noticed that as I get older my body is speaking to me and saying “I am out of shape and that’s why you can’t do the things you want to do any more!“ I have to agree. Every time I try to do something I hurt something: my back, my shoulder, my elbow. That shouldn’t be. I need to tone up my muscles and slim down. If I can accomplish that, then the rest will be easy.

Maybe, instead of waiting for a holiday or birthday I can prepare some special meals where we can sit down together and talk, laugh, reminisce or gossip about family. We can have Happy Unbirthdays, like in “Alice In Wonderland” or a “Festivus” for the rest of us, like in Seinfeld! Who says we can’t make up days to celebrate our lives? We don’t need a calendar to tell us when to celebrate. We can even buy or make little, thoughtful gifts for these unplanned, surprise celebrations just to let the people we love know how much we appreciate them. Imagine having nice intimate times without all the commercialism and pressure? I think it would make for wonderful memories to share.

So, as I take down the ornaments and pack them away, I’ll think about last year and what was lacking and I will look forward to this year and what I can fill it up with. We can’t change the past, but we can create a better, happier, healthier future. All we have to do is make a choice every day when we get up to follow through on our promises to ourselves and before we know it we will be doing them without thinking, without encouragement, without support. We will have changed for the better and the rewards from that will keep us motivated to go on.

The tree will come down, the slate for 2011 is clean and ready for me to write on. I wonder how it will read on December 31, 2011?

P.S. Day 3 of the diet and I am sticking to it!  Dr. Phil is doing a show on it today and I hope it gives me some tips to getting all this water down!  Other than that I am fine.  Looking forward to my first weigh in next Monday.  Good luck to all of you with your resolutions!