This whole “letting go” theme I’ve got going on is extending far beyond just “diet mentality“. Yes, it even extended to Christmas decor. I can be a bit… how shall we say… um… particular when it comes to decorating my house for Christmas. It is the only time of year I decorate (other than the Husband hanging out the American flag on flag-hanging days). Every year I would usually micromanage the decorating of the tree. No, it wasn’t a teaching moment about balance and color and other such artsy things at the basis of my… “particular-ness”. It was control-freak-palooza. I would tell the kids where they could hang each item. Because I couldn’t trust anyone but myself to decorate the way I think would look best, I would often become overwhelmed and moody. Oh yes, Miss Snappy-britches would come out big time.

Well, this year I did a really shocking thing. I’m actually surprised the Husband didn’t say something. Maybe his mouth was gaped open behind my back. Anyway, our house decorating schedule was thrown off by our black belt ceremony, so we were already two days late decorating the house. I started to stress out because I knew we also needed to run some errands. I turned to my girls and I asked, “do you guys think you can decorate the tree and the house while we’re gone?” They stared back blankly. “Well?”

I heard a lot of “but we don’t know where everything goes”… “what if we put something in the wrong place”…

I told them I’ve shown them every year how to space out ornaments on the tree… I told them I had already decorated the mantle so they didn’t need to worry about that… and then I told them… “I trust you to do a good job. Decorate it however you think it will look best.” I could tell they were uncertain but I smiled and left the house.

Were there things in places I would not have put there… sure. Did I say anything negative about them? Absolutely not. I told them the house looked so festive and beautiful and that they had done a good job, just like I knew they would. All of those things were true. Oh how I loved seeing those darling facing beaming with pride… all because I “let go” for a change.

Incidentally, we also had Thanksgiving dinner in our pajamas… why? Because I was letting go that day too and what we wore didn’t matter one bit. One can be thankful and comfortable at the same time. We did get all gussied up for the Daughter’s piano recital though.