How Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms Can Be a Grinch

Holidays are bittersweet for me because of the Rheumatoid Arthritis factor

A sweet little sign my aunt sent me years ago. Martha sign

No, I’m not shopping today. If you’ve read the blog a little, you know why. I’m safe at home ‘cause Rheumatoid Arthritis has put an end to my Black Friday shopping.

No one loves the Christmas season more than I. There are year-round signs of Christmas in my house like a tiny nativity set, a shelf of Christmas books I no longer put away each year, and my Christmas cell phone ringtones.

Everyone who cares about me knows I love God, giving, snow, singing, decorating, baking, visiting…

Look at what my aunt wrote on the back: “Stucco”! back of Martha sign

I generally like to celebrate anyway

I love to make every day into a party. I have done plenty of dinner parties, spontaneous picnics, and tea parties. So, holidays have always been over the top.
Anyway, that was all once upon another time. As one friend of mine says, “Add that to the list of things RA stole.” RA is the Grinch who stole my party-throwing days and I’ve accepted that.
But holidays are different. I want to keep as many traditions as I can. It is frustrating how much I can’t do. It’s frustrating all the things I want to do for others that I had to give up. I used to bake treats and drive around delivering them the week before Christmas. Everything is different now.

I’ve actually been dreading the Christmas season because of all of the things I won’t do this year because of RA…

Finding new ways to express the Christmas spirit

Of course I know Christmas is not about me or what I can do to celebrate. And like I’ve always told my kids: Christmas always comes; it does not depend upon us. This is just another new challenge which comes with the Rheumatoid Arthritis disease: waging war against the Grinch.