The extent of decorating this year

I love the Christmas holidays and try to find the joy in the real reason for celebrating. Last year was a very difficult Christmas because we were shown for the first time for a potential domestic adoption and I got too excited too soon. I've learned after being shown about 6 times that you can't get attached and don't get your hopes up (ya right). Just a couple of days before Christmas (last year) after an entire week of waiting for the phone to ring (will it be a 'yes' or a 'no') we were told it was a 'no'. We hadn't slept or eaten in a week and it was such a devastating thing to hear. I didn't decorate last year, I was so devastated. We didn't put up the tree, no garland on the fireplace, no garland/lights outside on the porch. Nothing. We were in such a funk (which lasted most of the past year, actually, due to adoption related stress).

This Christmas I am a little more upbeat because I know that God will give me an incredible gift next year but for right now I really am not in the mood to decorate. I really do love it, but I'm just not in to it this year, maybe because we don't have family in the city and we're going to be out of the country over the holidays. I've done a little bit of decorating and that is it for this year. Now...next year will be a completely different story but this year I am going to visit my aunt in Florida and just simply relax and forget about the world for a week. Then I will come home to 2009, the year I become a mom. How amazing is that?

So for this year I share what minimal decorating I've done and wish you a very Merry Christmas!