“So this is chistmas…” and what have I done?

Not nearly as much as I’d like. By now I thought that our plan to move to Japan would be farther along. In my head packing everything up and sort through our stuff seemed to be quite manageably in the evening hours after I come home from work. I blamed the fact that it didn’t seem to happen first on a bad cold, then on my workload, and so forth. This weekend I decided to cut to the chase and use the time to get started and a few hours in I had but one question:

How the hell did we accumulate so much stuff??

And most of it didn’t even qualify to go in one of the “keep”, “take with me”, “consider” piles and ended up in the ever growing “toss” pile. I mean I know that I’m a “keeper” and everything with even the smallest sentimental value gets to stay, but the chaos in my study and living room goes way beyond everything I expected.

On the other hand, it does feel liberating to just throw away useless things and to see clearly what really matters. Like the pictures of us and our family, the selfmade christmas decoration from my mother in law and many other little things. Though the sheer mass of things was overwhelming at first, I found myself thinking about past times and for the first time this year I got into some kind of christmas spirit.

Being alone, working till the evening, stressing out about everything it was kind of hard to feel the joy. But now, even though there are only a few days left and I made utter and complete chaos of our apartment, there on the living room table stands a little blinking christmas tree, surrounded by all the sentimental christmas decorations, and I smile everytime I see it.

I do hope that all of you enjoy the christmas season and look forward to a merry christmas with your loved ones.