I hope you were all able to find some joy in this holiday season in whatever circumstances you found yourself in – I know the holidays can be very difficult for some people.

Personally, I extremely overdid it and my body crashed hard on Christmas day. Thankfully, our Christmas day is very relaxed and so I kept from overdoing it even more. Unfortunately, on the 26th, I woke up in extreme pain because I had managed to dislocate my L5 vertebra and my sacrum (again). My vertebrae dislocate rotationally, meaning they rotate like they’re supposed to, but get stuck rotated and won’t go back into place properly without manual manipulation. I was at a “chronic illness ten” meaning that I would have gone to the ER had I not known exactly what it was and instead just kept doing what little I could to keep my brain distracted. Experiencing “chronic illness ten” pain is frustrating, because unless someone knows you extremely well they have no idea how badly you are truly suffering.

We did manage to take an adorable family photo – with our two disgruntled kitties. We also retook the photo without the kitties.

See what I mean about a “chronic illness ten?” I was literally limping around and barely able to stay sitting for more than a few minutes, but I really don’t think you can tell in these photos!

These are our first Christmas “portraits” and I absolutely love how they turned out! Yes, I’m wearing a Star Wars sweater, and Dan’s is an 8-bit Mario sweater! We’re both massive nerds – and I’m the one that picked out the sweaters haha. I love them!

I am very grateful that my husband, Dan, is so in tune with how I was feeling on Christmas day and the 26th. He kept making me sit down and bringing me things so that I could rest and not make myself hurt more. It was very sweet and I absolutely loved that he was paying that close attention.

What did you do for the holidays? What was one small moment that had a glimmer of happiness or contentment in it? Tell me in the comments below!