Currently my living room looks like Christmas has exploded in it.  Boxes everywhere.  The tree is halfway decorated, with oodles more ornaments waiting to be put on.  There are some wrapped presents, some handmade presents to be finished floating around,  decorations that need to go somewhere, plus our usual clutter.

I used to get really worked up about how everything needed to be perfect at Christmas.  The house had to be cleaned from top to bottom, every room needed to be decorated. My mother always said that Santa Claus didn’t come to a dirty house and somehow I still thought that. 

Two years ago, as I was recovering from stomach surgery and just simply did not have the physical energy to deal with it, I realized, Christmas is not in how your house is decorated, it’s not in making sure the tree is perfect,  it’s not in making sure you have the right cookies made, it’s not even about gifts, because Christmas can and will happen without all those things. 

Of course, I myself didn’t remember this until after I had spent the better part of two days making sure the lights on the Christmas tree were *just so*.  I took myself for a nice long walk and remembered that lesson.

So what if my living room looks like Christmas exploded, so what if I just blew the dust off a hallway mirror before stringing lights on it.  From here on out, I’m not going to stress about Christmas and just kick back and enjoy it.

Because you know what?  Santa DOES come to dirty houses.