There are years when Christmas is a chore and I find myself identifying with poor misunderstood souls like the Grinch and Scrooge and all the other Yule haters out there. Maybe it’s just me but Christmas can kick my butt. I’m not sure what’s different this time. Perhaps my continual attempts to lower the bar helped. Or that we had an extra week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or maybe it’s just Amazon prime that made the difference. Whatever the reason, it’s midnight on the 25th and I am in a good mood. Here are five things that I loved about Christmas this year:
- Christmas cards. I LOVE getting pictures and letters from people near and far. Even from the “beautiful people” who never age, are all color coordinated. But especially from people I adore but don’t get to see enough. I tape their faces to the side of my fridge and feel like the luckiest girl in the world.
- Making cookies with the kids. This year I taught my 11 year old how to make shortbread. She wrestled the rolling pin out of my control freaky hands and did a splendid job.
- Watching the cat attack the tree and then fall asleep in the middle of a nativity scene like some giant saber tooth come to worship the baby Jesus. With the youngest in our house being 7, we all missed having a little one to obsess over ornaments and decorations. Not that my babies ever used the tree as a scratching post but still…
- Having my kids use their own money to buy each other presents and find really thoughtful things. Sure they punch and torture each other, but knowing they’ll fork over cash to get their brother two of his very own bottles of Martinellis was very sweet.
- Reading certain Christmas stories and finding I was not the only one crying afterwards. “An Orange for Frankie” just kills me. Don’t get me started on “The Happy Prince” or “The Tale of the Three Trees.”
As you can read, none of these things are monumental or big enough to swing the holiday pendulum from Hell on Earth to Joy to the World. I’m sure it has more to do with my inner state of happiness. Whatever the reasons, I am so thankful to have had a merry, merry Christmas.
What things about the holidays bring you joy or make you nuts? Where you a Scrooge this year or a Bob Cratchet?
Christmas cookies! It’s not too late, right? I made pies this year instead.
But back to the question at hand, the tree is it for me. I love my tree and keep it lit all the time I’m awake.
Since I live in AZ, we go to the park on Christmas. Today we played soccer, frisbee, and wiffle ball. I loved playing with Mark and the kids. We even had my dad, his new wife, and my brother come hang out with us.
I love seeing my son play with his cousin. They are so cute together. We are lucky that she lives so close and sometimes I forget that.
Thanks for this post. It’s helping me think of the little and big things that I love about Christmas!
I just finished my first semester in graduate school in upstate New York. My family lives in Utah. So for me, being at home has been the best thing about Christmas this year. It’s the first time I’ve seen my mom and my brother since July. I even got to Skype with my other brother who’s on a mission!
I had forgotten how much fun my family is, and how nice it is to be with people who love you unconditionally. I feel like my guard is down for the first time in months. I used to always get stressed out over the holidays, too, but my perspective is different this year.
I went to Christmas Eve mass for the first time in a long time, when I went inside, it was nice and warm, came outside it was snowing.
And I’m old enough to know better, but, I stayed up and tracked Santa thru Norad, it was actually pretty fun, though I thought he took an odd route. Can anyone explain to me why if Santa is in Peurto Rico, he wouldn’t just go to Florida, no, Santa went the long way, he went up to Newfoundland Canada and then hit the states.
I enjoyed going to church on Christmas Eve, then not leaving the house for more than 24 hours, taking a nap, getting some knitting done, and exchanging photos with my sisters and sisters-in-law of us all wearing the Lanz of Salzburg granny nightgowns my mom gave us. We laughed at how hot we all are.
The decorating, wrapping paper coloring, treat eating, dance party with my girls in the living room was probably my favorite this year. A close second would be seeing how happy my little sister was to get a cockatiel for Christmas, and watching my other sisters kids play in the caterpillar tunnel and cardboard spaceship I got for them. A close third would be making hot corn bags for all the cold toes in my family. A close fourth would be taking my kids to my moms house for the big grandkids Christmas party, and fifth would be out-scoring my brother at target shooting the day after Christmas and then going to see The Hobbit with my family.