We’ve had a long series of crappy Christmases lately, and we’re trying hard to recover from them. So this year we told ourselves we were going to particpate — tree, decorations, cards, cookies, maybe even a party or concert. But you know what? Once you stop having Christmas, it’s really hard to restart. It’s so much bother. There’s the cookies, which because I am insane, amount to more than any small town can eat. However, we don’t have a freezer, so I’m dependent on the temperature in the garage staying cold enough. Then with this and that, it was ALL OF A SUDDEN THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS and we hadn’t got the cards out. I always think about this about the 2nd of December, and decide it’s much too early.
We picked up the tree (after a panicked moment when we realized “our” tree guy’s lot is now a store and he’d moved down the road), but left it on the front porch for two days, and it took another day or two before we got around to putting the minimum amount of ornaments on (but 4 strings of lights). Other decorations include a few hangy bits that were with the ornaments, two bottle-brush wreaths, a plastic mistletoe bell, and a wreath sent by a family member that we put on the front door (about a week after it arrived).
Yesterday Plagioclase and I went out and purchased a few token gifts. We’ve got a new business and we’re trying to build a house, so we’re not that interested in buying big-ticket items right now (besides, we buy that stuff when we want it, and don’t wait for some particular day to do so). Plagioclase’s mother is getting what she always does; she’s also giving us things we bought for ourselves, because she doesn’t go shopping. That’s part of the fun on Christmas morning — her surprise that she was so accurate in giving us stuff we like.
Today will see the continuation of our procrastination. Plagioclase will do his now-traditional go-out-and-try-to-find-something-for-Orthoclase shopping trip. We’ll run to the store for the forgotten food item. We’ll sequester ourselves and wrap the few packages. We’ll listen to the Christmas music we’ve ripped to iTunes, and David Sedaris’s Elf stories on NPR.
These are not the Christmases we had in our youth; not the ones we had even a half-decade ago. Eventually we will get into a new mode where we are not so melancholy, and where we have more interactions with our friends and our community. But this isn’t so bad. It will do for this year, and I’m not unhappy about it.
Merry Christmas, or if you prefer, Happy Mini-Lighted Tree in the House with Prezzies Around It Day!
