let your attitude stink!
Have you ever noticed how grouchy people get around the holidays? I am included in this. I don't mean to, because I do love the holidays, but it does bring out the worst in some people. I feel lucky and thankful that the holidays bring me positive memories. But I do notice that for many people, they cause stress, sadness, and tension. it's that time of the year when you are forced to face how broke you really are, or how annoying some of your family is, or how much you resent Santa for stealing J.C.'s thunder. The shopping alone is enough to make you want to go on ani-depressants. It doesn't matter how many years you say it, you never actually shop or save all year to relieve some of the financial stress. You end up charging up a credit card with disdain and paying it off with your tax returns.
Then there's the decorating process, which can be painful, literally. Most women end up doing it alone while their families mysteriously dissappear after hanging one ornament on the tree. That's how it is for me atleast. EVERY YEAR I get so excited to decorate. I envision a scene from a pottery barn catalog.....me, my kids, and my well dressed and happy husband gathered around the tree with Christmas music in the background, laughing and walking down memory lane as we look at all the ornaments. In my fantasy my house is clean and there is a warm meal on the table that some mysterious, illusive, ghost-chef has prepared for my perfect pottery barn, monagrammed- sweater vested family. It's a beautiful picture really. It's just not reality.
Here is the reality of this very experience for me. I must share.
I haul the boxes up MYSELF as Eric watches football and claims that if I'll just wait until the game is over, he'll help (Does he really think I'll wait until Jauary to decorate for Christmas?). Because I decorate on the weekend after a 60 hour work week, my house is trashed and we order a pizza for dinner. The only thing even remotely pottery barn about this entire event is the magazine on my coffee table, filled with items I can't even begin to afford. My kids are often fighting over, well, everything, so I find myself yelling at them A LOT. While I am dragging heavy boxes from my spider filled basement, the kids are unpacking the boxes and stringing decorations all over my house...even after telling them repeatedly to leave it all alone and wait for directions. As the kids and I are making all kinds of noise, Eric turns the T.V EVEN LOUDER, completely ruing my chances of feeling the Christmas spirit. After about an hour of this process, Eric goes upstairs to watch football and get away from the pshychotic Bree Vandacamp-esk woman who has taken over his wife, the kids get tired of hanging ornaments and being told not to mess with anything and retire to their rooms to play, and I find myself alone in my living room- with a complete mess for a house, Christmas music playing on my T.V, and a smile on my face.
I know it sounds strange, but I am so completely fine with this scenerio. EVen though I have this beautiful picure in my head every year of this joyous occasion, the truth is this. I do not expect my husband to wear a sweater vest and sing Christmas carols while happily decorating the Christmas tree. I would be wierded out if my kids were laughing and frolicking around my living room in monogrammed pottery barn Christmas sweaters. And my house is never clean, so if it was, it would make me highly nervous. I am seriously, 100% happy with the way this day plays out every year, because at the end of the day, I know these things.
#1 My husband is straight.
#2 My kids are normal.
#3 I have a family who loves me enough to participate in the process and then leave me alone to do what I love. Decorate for Christmas. Just me. In my living room. Music playing. Glass of wine. Smiling face. No one talking to me or fighting around me. Just me. In my zone. Ahhhh.
I do love for my family to come back into my zone once it is all up and the house is clean. Just not while it is all going on. I am sure there are many women who relate to me out there.
And for the the grouchy holiday people. Be grouchy! Honk your horns! Cut in line! Yell at innocent strangers over false advertising! Swing your fist at an old man for taking your parking spot! Go on with your grouchy self! Because honestly....if you have ANY sense of humor at all, those grouchy people are the most entertaining part of the holidays. And yes, the holidays can be very stressful and annoying. But that is what makes this time of year so great. All of it. The good and the bad. The happy and the sad. All of it. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I do suggest one thing. In the midst of Santa's big show.....it might be fun to bake a cake for the REAL birthday boy...Mr. JC himself. Light the candles. Let the kids blow them out. And remember what this day is all about. Love. Family. And forgiveness in this imperfect world.
Merry Christmas!
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