When my children were very little, I started a “good for everyone” habit. After I had snuck away to my bedroom late at night and wrapped the Christmas presents, and hidden them away on the top shelf, I collected the cardboard inner-tubes from the wrapping paper. “These will be great for a craft project” I thought to myself, “and by holding onto them, rather than throwing them out, I’m saving the planet… at least until the craft project outlives its life…”
YAY ME!
Only, there’s been one slight problem with my “reuse rather than recycle” strategy… there haven’t been as many craft projects as I imagined that needed long cardboard tubes…
Fast forward to this Christmas:
In a big change for our family, this year is about quality not quantity – less presents, but with a higher per-item dollar value. The kids are nearly adults and, let’s be honest, they are blessed to have more than enough of everything. They DO need new beach towels since their old ones are nearly a decade old and have developed inexplicable rust stains on them. (The old ones will then be regifted to my dogs to line their cubbyhouse-bedroom in winter). But the kids DON’T need another stocking full of stocking stuffers which never come out of their wrappers (and eventually get regifted… not to the dogs… but to friends… shh… that’s our little secret!)
The good news about this new approach to gift-giving is less presents means less paper means less carboard inner-tubes.
[At the risk of divorce, I asked my husband to take a photo of me with (some of) the tubes… I’d done a good job of hiding them up until now, and he assumed I was taking them down to throw them away – imagine his surprise when I put them all back up on the top shelf after the photo was taken!]
So, what to do with all those old inner-tubes???
I’m thinking that the next picnic I can manage to get myself to, I’ll use them for a game of super-sized pick-up sticks… either that or I’m going to have to make myself an echidna / hedgehog costume for next Halloween!
Realizing I had accidentally accumulated this pile of paper products got me flustered… which in turn got my domino-brain thinking about managing life through a chronic-pain Christmas. I’m guessing that most of you living with pain have been there, done that, so I’m not going to lecture you… but if this is your first festive season living with a newly diagnosed chronic pain condition (I’m super sorry for your situation) – here’s a few tips that have helped me in the past:
+ simplify
+ prioritize
+ delegate
+ pace yourself
+ renew your medication scripts well in advance of any holiday closures
+ be kind to yourself (you’re doing your best and that’s more than enough!), and
+ try to enjoy this special time with your family and friends
Take care taking care people, Linda xx
PS – Quick head’s up: now that my kids have finished school for the year, and it’s only 9 days until Christmas, this will be my last week of posting on The Mindful Migraine Blog for 2024. I’m going to take 3 weeks off and give you all a rest from my relentless positivity and then return with a Welcome Back post on Monday the 13th of January… ah yes… nothing says “relax” like micromanaging a blog 4 weeks in advance!!
The Mindful Migraine 
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