{"id":74739,"date":"2013-12-24T05:16:03","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T10:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=74739"},"modified":"2013-12-24T06:51:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T11:51:53","slug":"my-red-velvet-christmas-dress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=74739","title":{"rendered":"My Red Velvet Christmas Dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nI am so excited that it is Christmas here that my arms are blurry so you can see that I am basically FLAILING ABOUT. <\/p>\n

The holidays are tough for many people, and the pressure to “be happy” is so ratcheted up at this time of year that it can make life a Living Hell. I have been there. After the year I have had<\/a>, I am grateful to be alive, to have the family and friends that I do, to have the job that I have<\/a>, to be supported and helped by doctors who care for me. This time last year I was white-knuckling my entire life and getting ready to go to Memphis for 10 days by myself, scarng my family out of their minds. (Humorously: when I picked up my rental car in Memphis, I programmed in the hotel address into the GPS and followed the directions. I must have messed it up because it did not lead me to the hotel but to somewhere else entirely<\/a>. A foreshadowing.) Things would get worse before they got better. I have been given a second chance. Or, I took the second chance when it was offered to me. Something like that. Whatever the case may be, 2013 has been a major year for me. Major. I need to remember that, even when the going gets tough. <\/p>\n

I am excited for the holidays because I have a new niece. Her name is Pearl. She was born two weeks ago and I haven’t met her yet. I can’t wait to meet her!<\/p>\n

I want to wish you all a happy holiday. And if you’re not happy, if you’re in a rough place – like I was last year – like I have been so many years – I wish you peace and comfort and the strength to make it through the bad patch. Be gentle with yourself. Be gentle with others. I wish you all well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am so excited that it is Christmas here that my arms are blurry so you can see that I am basically FLAILING ABOUT. The holidays are tough for many people, and the pressure to “be happy” is so ratcheted … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74739"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74751,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74739\/revisions\/74751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}