My first. (Well, not counting hubby’s and kids’ and my own feeble attempts at self-massage.) I had always thought of massages as luxuries, and I am not often taken with luxuries (except for expensive chocolates and sometimes, champagne). Our doctor (a very good integrative one, which means she’s a licensed practicing medical doctor, but she is very well educated in other stuff, like Chinese medicine, and acupuncture, etc.) saw me Monday, checked me over after I told her about the chest pains (though not really in my chest but more like the upper left area just below my shoulder — turns out it was a pulled muscle) and the unexplained headache that wouldn’t go away — I thought I was having a mini-stroke … and pronounced that I was STRESSED. Am I turning into a hypochondriac? Or maybe a cyberchondriac! I must admit I’ve researched diseases (known family diseases) both for myself and the kids.

However, I thought I had taken all the necessary precautions to keep myself from stressing this Advent period. I pared our lessons down to the very bare bones. No formal schoolwork. Except for learning more about Advent and Christmas traditions, like St. Nicholas’ feast day, and the Immaculate Conception tomorrow, Our Lady of Guadalupe on the 12th, etc. Crafts to do like ornaments to deck the halls and the trees. Unfortunately, the little ones weren’t too excited about the kit I opened today. I am such a sucker for the “C word” (clearance). It’s got enough wire and red beads for 12 crosses — very pretty and calls for some scrollwork, but nothing too fancy, except that it helps to have needle nose pliers. Lucky we have a resident jewelry maker (Aisa) who had one.

We are expecting company on the 21st (my parents) and the 23rd (a bunch of friends) so we’ve been cooking and baking…. and hubby is going on a business trip. But I had really done my best to “do nothing major” this year!!! It’s somewhat annoying to find that stress has crept in after all.

And so I got the massage — and it was very good. And hubby insists I get more (doctor recommended twice a week for 2 weeks) but I’ll just schedule it on my monthly days-off. What I *love* is that it cost me all of fifteen bucks. Because it got written out as myofascial release. Which means insurance pays for it. Now *that* is the most de-stressing news of all, wouldn’t you agree?