Christmas Calm

Honda ran a great ad campaign this holiday season, with the theme "At a time it's easy to go overboard..." The ads showed people making a huge deal of the holiday season: hiring Bette Middler to sing carols, for example, or Bobby Flay to cook Christmas dinner. I loved this ad campaign because I think so many of us in America can relate to the pressure the holidays bring to do things bigger and better. After all, it's Christmas! It's here! Once a year! Make a scene! But ever since my dad was sick a few years ago, Christmas has taken on a new meaning for me and my family. Contrary to the stressful norm of the holidays, my family treats Christmas as a time to unplug, eat good food, and just enjoy spending time with one another doing absolutely nothing.

(Katie and I ... being ourselves.)

Christmas 2011 was exactly that, to a greater degree than ever before. It had been more than a year since we managed to get the four of us- just my mom, dad, my sister and I- all together to enjoy some plain and simple family time. And since I only had a few days off, we decided to stay in the Berkshires this year and just relax. My mom cooked amazing food all weekend- one night was an Italian antipasti feast, another a seafood smorgasbord, and I'm still dreaming about our Christmas eve "roast beast." We watched movies together, played xbox, went for walks with our dog, and sat around in front of the fireplace reading books. For the first time in practically forever, we sat down as a family for a football game and got to cheer on the Pats together (ok, not our WHOLE family...sorry Mom.) Our only excursions into civilization were to the Berkshire Mall for some necessary last-minute shopping with Dad.

(He helped us wrap.)

Overall, it was a lazy, calm holiday. But I needed it. I think we all needed it. What's the point in ending a year in a frenzy of stress? For me, at least, 2011 has felt like a non-stop panic fest. It's been a year of perpetual transitions. And I still am not settled! Christmas was a time to take inventory of all the blessings in the year, and take a deep breath before launching into 2012.

Check out the albums from my time home, and the prerequisite family photo shoot. The albums SHOULD be public:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100325942061346.2558575.5515657&type=1&l=45e1f1206a

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100325935215066.2558572.5515657&type=1&l=8673ec8b92

Peace and Love- see you in 2012!

Trash to Treasure

As the gaping time between blog entries can tell you, life's been a bit of a mess lately. Figuratively speaking, it's been a year of messy transitions. 2011 was a year for switching careers, switching homes, switching routines, and switching priorities. But literally speaking, it's been a mess lately too, as any visitor to my small apartment could tell you.

Call it an early New Year's resolution, but I decided last week that it was time to clean up the mess. Time to knock off those nagging to-do lists. Time to follow up on emails, follow through on promises, and get my life in order to kick off 2012 the right way. And there may not have been a better symbol of the mess in my life than my disgusting, broken, get-what-you-pay-for dresser, which can best be described by this online review:

Rating

Do not Recommend

tprice80

from Auburn, AL, Nov 24, 2010

This was the worst money ever spent. It is a total piece of junk. Not sturdy, falls apart, completely unusable about a month after purchase. Drawers will not open. Drawers fall apart. Screws fell out.

I wish I had taken a picture of this thing, for the sheer humor of how BAD it was. As of two weeks ago, exactly 2 of the 6 drawers still worked and the top of the dresser had warped into a U-shape. It was like the dresser was a mouth full of bad teeth, sneering at me. So, none of my clothes could go into it, leading to piles of wrinkled filth all over my room. As I tried to push it out of my bedroom, it literally collapsed into a million pieces, and I collapsed with it. Anyone who has seen me fall in real life before, please take this moment to laugh a little evilly in your head.

When it comes to furniture, I have commitment issues. I've moved every year of my life (sometimes more than once in a year) for the PAST 7 YEARS. This is clearly not the time in my life to spend cash on actual furniture. Actual furniture prices make my head spin. I think I always planned on winning my furniture from a Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right or something. When do people actually go out and buy this stuff?

But there simply was no way I was going to buy another iteration of fake furniture: No more clear plastic drawers, particle-board trash heaps or milk crates. So I decided to go to Goodwill, and embrace the DIY- "design on a dime" spirit. And that's where I found this:

What a beauty. And for only $45. I could tell it needed a little -- ok, a lot-- of love. It was filthy. It was missing handles. The stain and polyurethane was chunked off and melted by an... iron? Well, melted by something. Time to roll up my sleeves and get to work.

I drove straight from Goodwill to the Home Depot and picked up just a few basic miracle workers: Rags, Sandpaper, primer in a spray-can, and black acrylic paint. And, battling cold and the setting sun, I began the attack.

One intense session of scrubbing, a very sore right arm (sanding is really tough labor! I swear!), 3 coats of paint, and only a few minor cuts and scrapes later, I couldn't believe how AWESOME it came out. I'm so proud of it and it's totally changed my whole room! Now my clothes have somewhere to go- and I have a piece of furniture I'm proud of.

This silly dresser project was a great way to kick off the "clean up the mess" campaign in my life. My to-do list is getting smaller and smaller. I'm not there yet, but I'm on my way. Epilogue to the story: I told my mom about the brand of dresser that this is, and she told me that it was worth $700-800! Incredible!! Thanks to my Mom for the painting advice, Meredith for the use of her SUV, and Ron for his incredible lifting powers! Peace and love.