Checking in. Merry Christmas, my friends.

We're having a quiet night here. All the utilities are on at the same time, lol, and my mom is calling me from some mall every ten minutes because shopping gives her panic attacks.

I didn't put anything up this year but a lot of my neighbors did and I've been enjoying their decorations on my evening walks. It's funny because I used to work for months on Christmas stuff for everyone and this year, like last year, has been whittled down to phone calls and other people's outdoor lights. It's really weird to feel this withdrawn from all of it but, okay, if that's the deal right now, that's the deal.

Just wanted to pop in and wish you all a good holiday.

:hug:
:grouphug:

i was just sitting down to post the same thing. how is everyone??

i am exhausted, and in a lot of pain. don't know what precipitated this fibro flair, but it is a bad one. had a good year, but am just flattened right now.
the family is well, tho, and i did get a pile of cookies made, and got to help some friends that needed a hand. so, trying to just accept that i feel like shit, but things are good, anyway. and very happy to be in a position to help others. the best part of the holidays.

merry christmas to all. hope that you all can find some little bit of joy. and hope.

I don't get here as much as I used to, or on DU in general as much as I used to, but I'm glad we have this little group here and that it is continuing to be active. If I've got any say in it, as long as DU is here this group will be as well. Peace and good cheer!

Hope everyone finds some peace today. Love to all. :party: :loveya: :grouphug:

I was hoping to do better this year, but I just sort of shut down, and went through the motions.

When there are too many people I can't hear anyone. We attended a very nice children's Mass, and I managed to feed a huge mob of people afterwards, but my mood sorta went downhill from there.

I'm posting on DU because it's quiet.

Maybe next year I'll do better... (I say that every year!)

Whew. Cleaning up the mess will be good therapy, I'm happier already.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I think. My sister is hard of hearing and has a lot of trouble in crowded situations. It used to cause a lot of problems, she would try to hear and misinterpret things (it doesn't help that she also has mental issues.) But now, she visits for a short time and retreats to her room. No one gets angry. Does everyone understand how you feel?

But dread is all I feel going into the Christmas season. It's almost a PTSD kind of thing.

I'm not hard of hearing, I simply find it hard to hear. I think the part of my mind that hears words as words, rather than sounds, isn't always awake, and in a room full of people talking I don't hear any words, not even those of someone who is talking to me.

It's some weird genetics I'm sure. A whole lot of my family entered kindergarten and were sent straight off to speech therapy. I've got two siblings who were unintelligible as kids. They didn't speak English but they did have their own language of sorts. I understood them.

In the days before speech therapists they just used to beat kids like us, or so I've heard from older relatives...

I can hear just fine as long as there aren't any background noises. But when there are background noises people really have to speak up for me to hear them sometimes. I was distressed about it enough at one point to start looking for an ear doctor. Now days it doesn't bother me all that much, though. I just try to be humorous about it.

:thumbsup:

:hi: I like yours too, because I have a lot to say, unfortunately, a writer, I am not.

Merry Christmas, hunter.

I've laid low and have been mostly hanging by myself and watching really very sappy movies on the Hallmark channel -- they are the very sappiest. But at least, they are also funny. :)

:hug:

is good for the soul. (or whatever you want to call it.)

Glad to hear things are going well!

:hi: how are things with you?