The Day After Christmas and Why I Am Happy

Note - I wrote this on December 26, 2011.  

Today is a good day...I am happy.
Yesterday was a good day too! Probably the best Christmas day we have had in a long time. The gifts I got for everyone were a big hit. That made me happy.


Here's a peak at their favorite gifts...

Over Thanksgiving break, my son Tyler and I were joking around about the movie Finding Nemo and he said he wanted a Nemo for Christmas, well he should have watched what he wished for. I got him a stuffed Nemo and it has been with him ever since (yes he is almost 21). Every time I see him with his Nemo it makes me happy.

I surprised Bryan with a tool set. He is out on his own now and I'm sure he will need tools sometime. He did Get to use a screwdriver from it yesterday...another thing that made me happy. But his most favorite gift were the NY Giants glasses I got him.

As for Meagan, she was the most surprised of all. In May she was held up at gun point and among the things that were stolen was her Louis Vuitton purse. 2 days ago Hubs announced that we can get her another purse. I didn't have enough time to pick one up so I wrapped a pic of the bag in a big box of packing peanuts. Seeing how surprised she was made me happy too.

Then came time for dinner. I always make sauce for Christmas dinner. It's a big deal in my house. I cook it for 2 days. I put an eye of round roast and a rack of baby back ribs in it for good flavor. Then we have the meat with the pasta on Christmas. The house smelled wonderful for 2 days. At around noon the tasting began, I have well over 50 teaspoons for just that reason. Within an hour the tasting spoons were replaced with bowls and bread. They loved it! That's another reason to be happy. Actually having my family enjoy the food I make is one of the best feelings in the world to me. (Here's a pic of my brand new 16 quart pot with the sauce cooking).

We ate supper early, about 2 pm, so by 7 pm they were all hungry again. I took out the leftovers from supper and made the kids plates. Yes it was work, but I very happily did it. Last Christmas I was not able to do much, I had just had surgery that had a very long recovery and I was barely able to stand up for more than a few mins at a time. So being able to do things for the family made me happy this year.

The shopping season was relatively stress free. I knew what I was going to get everyone. Making any gift decisions is usually very stressful for me, but this year I had a plan of attack...note to self...do this next year. So that's another thing that made me happy.

In my immediate family (hubs and kids) we don't have family drama and I know how lucky we are. My family however is not drama free and my feelings were hurt by someone yesterday, but with the help of Hubs and the kids I didn't let them ruin the day for me. Having that kind of support also makes me happy.

So there you have it, I am happy as a clam today. And I hope to be happy tomorrow too. I plan on making a happiness journal and just jotting down happy things everyday (hopefully). Why not join me? There's so much stress in our everyday lives that we should all try to look for things that make us happy.

This year we lived by the saying 'life is too short' and I plan on continuing that in 2012!