The Nutcracker, Xmas Grinch and the Other Knee

http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=50033156&msgid=1088458&act=BOIU&c=295069&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKFNnVd_S9u0%26context%3DC383ad2bADOEgsToPDskJZydYCSnlr5TEOgy6tIGF9

Here I am, in the Nutcracker.  I'm one of the villagers in a hot pink dress with white curls, just part of the background scenery, but I made it.  It was a beautiful performance by all the dancers involved, the costumes amazing, the colours, music and dance breathtaking.  By the end of the 4th performance I could barely walk never mind dance, BUT I DID IT!!!  I had braces on both knees by then as the stress put on my right leg tore my meniscus there too.  What a mess.  Upon follow-up with the surgeon on my left knee, he wanted to repair my right one as well.  I suggested that I try working on it myself with weights and physio before undergoing all that recovery time again.  The majority of my Christmas shopping was done by Internet and my husband took me out on a couple of Saturday evening trips in a wheelchair.  The malls are pretty quiet Saturday nights and I was less likely to get run over in the chaos.  Even with 4 daughters to buy for and being unable to walk the malls, it was not too bad.  Instead of wrapping, everything goes in bags.  I cannot sit with my head bent over to wrap so we have a tree full of Xmas bags and tissue paper.  The difficult part for me is the entertaining.  All the dinners, Xmas Eve, Xmas morning, Xmas dinner, Boxing day dinner, just family stuff.  Driving here, driving there.  I haven't figured out what causes all the difficulty.  Is it the sitting, or moving your head to look at everyone?  My husband does the majority of the cooking, but there is still the preparation and the clean up following.  Christmas is just painful.  I feel like the Grinch by the time New Years Eve rolls around and don't want to go anywhere or celebrate at all.  I just want to crawl into a corner by then and hide.  Do the rest of you Dystonia sufferers out there feel like me or am I the new Grinch wanna be????