So far I am loving this Christmas season.
Why? Because I am blessed with fifty reasons why I can legitimately skip it this year. :)
No, really.
For me, Christmas has never exactly been 'the most wonderful time of the year' and I've shared my angst about it with you before, like here. Deep inside, I've longed to be brave enough, at least once, to skip Christmas (the World's idea of Christmas, that is), but I've always chickened-out. Downright caved-in to peer pressure (and all that).
But like I said, this year I have my excuses. Lots of 'em. Great big huge legitimate ones.
Like, we just might be moving into a whole other house during Christmas week (or extremely soon after).
I'm spending hours everyday now packing and decluttering. And searching for a place to rent.
My dad recently passed away and I'm still recovering from that.
Our Christmas decorations are all packed away. I'll not even be putting up our "Poof! Instant Christmas" gold grapevine Christmas tree. (Er, unless I change my mind.)
We're in the process of giving away extra furniture and selling some and taking some out to the curb... and I've still got ads to get out on bulletin boards.
And Tom and I are spending much time wondering just what we should do for the whole rest of our lives...
Need I go on? (Because, really, there's more.)
Oh, I'll send a few Christmas cards, but there'll be no 'family Christmas letter' this year. I've bought a few gifts online for Tom and Naomi, I'll give a gift card to my favorite single mom and a donation to a charity, as well. And while I'm packing, I'm watching the occasional Christmas movie on dvd... and humming Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas while taking walks around my neighborhood...and kneeling at my windows at night, looking out at the neighbor's Christmas display lights.
But that's gonna be about it.
This is my year to take Christmas off. And you know? I don't even feel the least bit guilty. Technically, I feel smart. Technically, I feel this is the right thing to do and God won't even mind.
***
P.S. Here's something else to add to my Keep It Simple list... I just returned from our local 'zap you back to the 1940's' supermarket where I bought a small coffee and sat at their tiny, warm cafe section while reading Christmas magazines, listening to carols and watching all the people around me. Ahhh... my idea of bliss!
"Unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord..."
I don't think you should feel guilty at all...sometimes things happen the way they do for a reason...maybe all the time they happen for a reason. We had some of these feelings for a lot of years...and now we know why. When you look into the origins of the customs we follow, hmmmmmm.... We do Hanukkah instead now...except this year we will be gone most of it...so not much of that either this year...and it is ok, really is!!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
it sounds quite serene...and wonderful.
ReplyDeleteBe it known! I-am-so-jealous-of-you!
ReplyDeleteYes, 'jealous' without the usual *jealous*... which * * are supposed to mean that one is not reallllllllly jealous. Well, I have no trouble with saying that I AM really jealous.
How super to have a Holiday Season when you have a super amount of reasons for skipping all the Jazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Silly that we need a so-called reasonable reason to but.. we do. -sigh- We do. We get guilted into doing too much of the Jazzzzzzzz, every year.
With me, I made some progress one year, on forcing the family to cut down some. And forcing is the correct word. And then, before I know it, they have weasled their way around and I am back to the same old Jazzzzzzz. -sigh-
This year, I threw in the white towel. I will "burn up the plastic," as needed. {within reason of course!} I will! I am. I'm not even whining about it, either! Amazzzzzzzzzing! ,-)
But ~ I still have done some *secret* cutting back. Heh,heh, heh... And no one has complained. I'm not attempting to put a pretty bow or decoration on every thing {in our living area}, everything which "sits still" long enough for me to put bows/decorations on it!
Which means I have not allowed myself to look at all my saved Christmas books and magazines, yet. I have dipped into some. But I am steeling myself first, to not get sucked into my usual..."I-want-to try to make my house look like an issue of Victoria!"
How silly of me to have let myself get this way, in the past? How silly of me to have set myself up, to sigh over how I can't. Sillllllllllly.
So, although I am still jealous of your ability this year ~ I now realize that I have gotten-my-way in some things. :-)))) And we all love to realize a fact like that! :-)
Mmmmm, why don't I simply copy this comment and make an entry in my own blog??? And I may just do that! Please and thank you.
Mari-Nanci
I've done my part.
ReplyDeleteMoved the 'extended family' Christmas party from the usual Christmas Day to the Sunday before Christmas.
But, I have a deep need to make it feel like Christmas at our new house. I'm sure it would be classified as a 'felt need' and not a 'real need', but...whatever.
I so want SOMETHING in my world to feel normal. Normal was shot straight to who-knows-where earlier this year, and I want it back!
I'm thinking about sitting on my new roof top Christmas Eve night to flag down Santa this year.
(i think i might need a puppy)
I skipped Christmas last year, and it was awful. In fact, I immediately decided that this year I would have an "open House" on Christmas Eve and invite everybody I knew, because I was sure there would probably be plenty who couldn't make it - but that I would have a festive house and show some love to anyone who came.
ReplyDeleteWell, as usual, I've just been too busy with other things to plan a party. But I will be doing what I normally do on Christmas (which I didn't do last year.) So that will be something, which will be better than nothing.
But, you have to do what you have to do, or want to do. You live and learn. I wish you the best! Whatever that may be for you.