So maybe Top Ten Tuesday is the ONLY thing I can manage to keep up with. I've started a few blog posts this week but nothing stuck. Ah, well. On to the list!
Top Ten Reasons I Can't Wait For December 26th
2. Gift Exchanges - I have three children and they all have activities. It's around the beginning of December that we start to get requests for gift exchanges. Often they have a small limit of $5 or maybe it's a book exchange or an ornament exchange. But they are many and they are irritating. Just the simple fact that I now have to drop whatever I am doing and go into a store (cue "Frosty the Snowman") and find something that's not too terrible for $5 is enough to make me crazy. And then it has to be wrapped or in a gift bag or something. Do the people planning these gift exchanges think the kids actually have any part in this at all? And then my child comes home with an Olaf mug that asks if I want to build a snowman.3. Expectations - This year we have told the kids we are not buying Christmas presents. I made this proclamation at about this exact time last year when I sat in the middle of our family room, surrounded by hundreds of dollars worth of consumerism and wrapping paper. It is ridiculous. This year we are focusing on giving rather than receiving and the kids have been told this all year long. However, they will still get presents from their grandparents and aunts and uncles and they know this. So I think the lesson may have been lost on them. But the saddest part of it is that I think it's all our fault as their parents. We try so very hard to provide them everything they wish for this time of year, like it's their right just for wishing it. I have a great time buying presents for the kids, I do. But when I realize they are going into the holiday with expectations of receiving everything their little hearts desire, I realize they have no real comprehension of the meaning behind Christmas.
4. Traffic - Down here in South Florida this is our season. Everyone who has been freezing their asses off wants to visit Florida for the holidays. Down here we can go to the beach on Christmas Day. We can shop for gifts in our flip flops and drink iced tea in a tank top next to the holiday light display downtown. Everyone wants a piece of that and they all drive down here to get it. Unfortunately they don't know where they are going and their Aunt Margaret who has a condo in Boca Raton can barely see over the steering wheel so she's no help. About this time of year we have no rush hour, we have rush week. Except it's a lot less fun than it was in college. The roads are packed with slow drivers, the malls are packed with slow walkers, and if your procrastinating self thinks you can just run in and grab a gift for that gift exchange you've got going on tonight - well you should just think again.
5. Self-righteous Christians - I'm probably going to get crucified for this one. Unless I'm going to a church, I'm not asking for a lecture about Jesus dying for my sins. I get all of it and yet I still choose not to be a Christian and still celebrate Christmas with my family. I'm truly sad that it bothers you. Before you apply that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" bumper sticker to your Landrover, perhaps you should take some time to really look into the origins of the holiday and then decide if it matters that non-Christians are celebrating it.6. TV - Where are all my favorite shows? Contrary to how it might appear on this blog, I don't really watch that much television. I don't have a lot of time to sit in front of the TV, but there are a few things I do make time for every week. So when The Man and I cuddle up together in anticipation of the newest episode of "The Big Bang Theory" and Penny walks in with long hair, I am mad. Seriously? Do I have to endure reruns til January? And then when there is a new episode, guess what, it's Christmas themed. Can I not escape from the madness?
7. Broken Ornaments - For the past couple of years I've let Munchkin decorate the tree. I decorate my mom and dad's tree for them every year so frankly, when it comes time to decorate our little tree I've kinda lost the momentum. But it all works out because Munchkin loves doing it. However, this year she did not stick to the unbreakable ornaments like she did last year (totally my fault for not supervising) and therefore, thanks to our cats, we have had several broken glass balls all over our floor already. I'm not attached to any of these ornaments so it's not the sentimental value, it's the glass in my foot that really bugs me about the whole thing. I'm pretty sure I have a piece in there so deep it will just live forever in my foot. It's a part of me now. I sort of wish they'd all just break already so we can be done with it.
8. Egg Nog - Goober loves this stuff. It hits our grocery store shelves around the end of September and I try to keep him from noticing as long as I can. $4.29 for a quart of flavored thick milk? WTF? I don't hate egg nog, but I don't go all crazy for it either. Goober would happily drink three glasses of it every day if I'd let him so we have to ration it out for him. Every day I get the same question numerous times, "Mommy? Can I have some egg nog?" - sometimees followed by, "Mommy! We're out of egg nog!" - and every time I walk out the door, "Mommy, can you pick up some egg nog while you're out?" He'll try anything egg nog flavored - it's his favorite stuff ever. Luckily it's only around for the last few months of the year.
9. Fat - Pretty much every day of my life I tell myself I need to stop eating so much crap and start exercising. This is not something that only happens during the holidays. But the holidays add a whole new level of hopelessness to the idea. There is no way in hell I'm going to be able to avoid chocolate covered deliciousness and homebaked amazingness and candy coated wonderfulment. There's something amazing within reach pretty much constantly from Thanksgiving until mid January. There's a reason so many people start dieting in January - it's not the promising newness of the fresh new year, it's the fact they've gorged themselves so heavily over the last two months that they feel like reincarnated versions of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.
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