Braving the Ho Ho

I believe it was in the late 80's or early 90's that it was therapuetically decided that December should be my OTM. (Official Therapy Month) My memory blocks were coming down and. . . Well. . . December in a Kiddie Whorehouse is pretty much the antithesis of the commercial hoopla. It takes an extreme to balance an extreme and commercial christmas is ALLOT of sugar and spice to balance. Most of my childhood christmas tales have trauma attached. Please let me pass on that body of holiday small talk. December is pretty much one, long trauma anniversary for me. Add in the inflexible holiday traditions of my in-laws which my husband honored and our children thoroughly enjoyed long past their childhoods and allowing December to be my OTM made good sense. By the time my FIL took his holiday planning authority with him when he passed in Fall 2016, I felt like my OTM had produced enough results that I could see a picture of the obese red guy without gagging to flashback Hell on my memories of wha't REALLY in Santa's lap.

Work on decking out the outside of the honey barn and the extraction room continues. Wow this building has come a long way since I started serving eviction notices to the resident wildlife. The other two rooms of the barn are open enough that they cannot be warmed very well. They are sheltered from the wind and rain, but not the air temps. The extraction room, previously the pastuerization room, has a drop ceiling and still needs allot of work to seal it off, but it is already sealed well enough to hold the heat from the space heater in the corner. It's starting to feel like a comfy little room. The main section of the room comfortably holds the christmas tree and the 60" round table upon which I am currently typing. The alcove leg of the room still holds some of the pastuerization equipment which is attached to the walls, but the open area of the alcove now holds a light fort built with the net lights designed to wrap around bushes in a landscape and 4 large dog pillows for a floor. The net wires hold light-weight decorations beautifully. It has received Persilly's REAL bitch paw of approval.

So far so good on the flashbacks. Yes, the memories are still there, but responding well to therapy exercises.