Santa Sucks the life out of ME.
I walk into Walgreens last week and what do I hear - Christmas music. I about fall over. NO!! It is too early for this crap. I don't hate Christmas, but I hate having it crammed down my throat. Each year it seems to start earlier and earlier. Before we know it, Walgreens will start having trees placed on their top shelves right after the 4th of July.
So over the weekend, we were once again the country and I was at my mom's house, surrounded by Halloween decorations. It looked like someone threw up and all that came out were Halloween decorations. My mother had a couple of blow up, animated things in her front yard, things on her windows, crafts around her house etc. Mind you, my mother does not have any neighbors, nor does she get trick-or-treaters. So this is 'madness' is for her pleasure. On occasion her 6 grandchild do visit and enjoy the animation. But for the most part, the stuff is just for her, my father and my 12 yr old niece. Not much of an audience.
I did not get the 'holiday' gene. I think most of them suck, and require too much effort. So over the weekend, my mother was commenting on how she needed to remove her Halloween stuff and begin putting up her X-mas stuff. I scoffed at her ' are YOU kidding me'.
She looked at me, in her ever so typical motherly fashion and stated ' you never have been a big holiday child.' I glanced at her and smirked - then the thought occurred to me. um. I guess I never gave it much thought, but apparently I have always been this way. *Therefore having kids did not ruin it for me, it just re-enforced the fact that I really DO hate the madness that surrounds most holidays.
Perhaps I would enjoy it more if it was not being CRAMMED down my throat at every turn. The lights, the ornaments, the gifts, the wish list - all tend to begin in October. OMG.
Not to mention the list of people we need to buy for, suddenly gets longer each year.
For example, my sisters old neighbors use to buy us, and my kids a gift. Are you kidding me, I am NOT your neighbor. So hence, I felt obligated to return 'holiday' gesture. I hate feeling pressured. Holidays should be less stressful, require less money and more happiness. So why do we get so 'jazzed' about it all? My mom even wears a Ms. Claus costume she had made - every Christmas, she wears this red min-dress trimmed with white trim and trots around like Mrs. Claus. She really does adore the holidays. Me - not so much. Our holidays are filled with running around, travel, sleepless nights, and then travel back home with a car full of cranky kids and too much stuff. Perhaps if we got to stay home, and begin our own tradition i would enjoy it more.
Have you ever tried to pack x-mas presents, take them to the country in order for Santa to hand them out? Near impossible with a 6 year old....Then you have to make the decision - how many presents to bring? Because you have to leave some at home, so Santa knows where 'we' REALLY live. Yeap, that is right, we leave presents at home under the tree right before we leave. We get packed up, and then Lance runs back into the house (acts like he is going potty), and places all of the gifts under the tree for our return 3 days later. OMG.
A tree - that is another thing that just gets me. WHY do I have to put a tree up? We don't even stay home. We never get to enjoy the damn thing, so I put it up to take it down. It seems like a real waste of my time. I did it last year, and the only joy I found in the whole process was watching my son take the lead. I do it all for him and his sister. But I find little to no joy in the whole process. I try not to spend alot of money - why should Christmas make us broke. My kids do not do without all year, so Christmas does not need to be over the top. I refuse to charge stuff for the sake of making their holiday 'wish' come true. So there will not be a PSIII or WII under the tree this year, we will wait for it all to go on sale/clearance. duh.
Lance on the other hand, remembers holidays where he had MOUNTAINS of gifts; scof. He loves the holidays and attempts to make the outside of our home look like the griswals - I cringe just thinking about it. Here is the gist - keep your Christmas music until the week before. If you play it in Oct / Nov, I will shop on line. As far as shopping goes, 3 gifts per child, 2 for the husband a couple of gift cards and I will be done. I refuse to be NUTS this season. I would rather have quality time than a large quantity of crap gifts. So call me a Santa hater, but your rose colored glasses would be gray if you continued to try to keep up with the Jones.
So over the weekend, we were once again the country and I was at my mom's house, surrounded by Halloween decorations. It looked like someone threw up and all that came out were Halloween decorations. My mother had a couple of blow up, animated things in her front yard, things on her windows, crafts around her house etc. Mind you, my mother does not have any neighbors, nor does she get trick-or-treaters. So this is 'madness' is for her pleasure. On occasion her 6 grandchild do visit and enjoy the animation. But for the most part, the stuff is just for her, my father and my 12 yr old niece. Not much of an audience.
I did not get the 'holiday' gene. I think most of them suck, and require too much effort. So over the weekend, my mother was commenting on how she needed to remove her Halloween stuff and begin putting up her X-mas stuff. I scoffed at her ' are YOU kidding me'.
She looked at me, in her ever so typical motherly fashion and stated ' you never have been a big holiday child.' I glanced at her and smirked - then the thought occurred to me. um. I guess I never gave it much thought, but apparently I have always been this way. *Therefore having kids did not ruin it for me, it just re-enforced the fact that I really DO hate the madness that surrounds most holidays.
Perhaps I would enjoy it more if it was not being CRAMMED down my throat at every turn. The lights, the ornaments, the gifts, the wish list - all tend to begin in October. OMG.
Not to mention the list of people we need to buy for, suddenly gets longer each year.
For example, my sisters old neighbors use to buy us, and my kids a gift. Are you kidding me, I am NOT your neighbor. So hence, I felt obligated to return 'holiday' gesture. I hate feeling pressured. Holidays should be less stressful, require less money and more happiness. So why do we get so 'jazzed' about it all? My mom even wears a Ms. Claus costume she had made - every Christmas, she wears this red min-dress trimmed with white trim and trots around like Mrs. Claus. She really does adore the holidays. Me - not so much. Our holidays are filled with running around, travel, sleepless nights, and then travel back home with a car full of cranky kids and too much stuff. Perhaps if we got to stay home, and begin our own tradition i would enjoy it more.
Have you ever tried to pack x-mas presents, take them to the country in order for Santa to hand them out? Near impossible with a 6 year old....Then you have to make the decision - how many presents to bring? Because you have to leave some at home, so Santa knows where 'we' REALLY live. Yeap, that is right, we leave presents at home under the tree right before we leave. We get packed up, and then Lance runs back into the house (acts like he is going potty), and places all of the gifts under the tree for our return 3 days later. OMG.
A tree - that is another thing that just gets me. WHY do I have to put a tree up? We don't even stay home. We never get to enjoy the damn thing, so I put it up to take it down. It seems like a real waste of my time. I did it last year, and the only joy I found in the whole process was watching my son take the lead. I do it all for him and his sister. But I find little to no joy in the whole process. I try not to spend alot of money - why should Christmas make us broke. My kids do not do without all year, so Christmas does not need to be over the top. I refuse to charge stuff for the sake of making their holiday 'wish' come true. So there will not be a PSIII or WII under the tree this year, we will wait for it all to go on sale/clearance. duh.
Lance on the other hand, remembers holidays where he had MOUNTAINS of gifts; scof. He loves the holidays and attempts to make the outside of our home look like the griswals - I cringe just thinking about it. Here is the gist - keep your Christmas music until the week before. If you play it in Oct / Nov, I will shop on line. As far as shopping goes, 3 gifts per child, 2 for the husband a couple of gift cards and I will be done. I refuse to be NUTS this season. I would rather have quality time than a large quantity of crap gifts. So call me a Santa hater, but your rose colored glasses would be gray if you continued to try to keep up with the Jones.
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