It has come to my attention that people other than my Mom and my beloved Kayleen actually read this blog. Yay! To those of you who do visit, thank you for coming to my sick little world – hope you enjoy the trip, and perhaps, maybe, just for fun – you could consider LEAVING A COMMENT OR TWO so that it’s not like I’m talking to a wall in here? Cause I do that a lot at home all day long, and it kinda sucks. I have conversations all day long with the dogs and the baby, and as yet, they are all non-verbal beings. While I love that I get to be in charge of all the answers and run the whole conversation myself, occasionally I run out of material and it gets a bit boring.
So, let’s update you on life. Husband has been sick for a while, but is now feeling much better, and just for fun I am now getting sick. Which means that before too long, the baby will be sick too. This should be awesome. For now, she seems fine, thank heavens, but I am just about done. Sore throat, stuffy head, sneezy, achy, makes it super fun to take care of the crew. Ok, done whining. Thanks for caring.
So, the holidays are here again. Most of you that know me know that over the years I’ve made an art form out of avoiding the holidays. “What do you mean you don’t “do” the holidays? No cards, no tree, no presents? How do you do that?” Edit to really mean “What the hell is wrong with you, wacko?”
Several years ago I decided that trying to run a business which was overwhelmed with boarding dogs from before Thanksgiving until after the New Year AND trying to find time to send out cards, decorate the house, shop, and do all the other “holiday” things was just ridiculous. I was a stressed out disaster and finally I put my foot down. I was skipping Christmas. And you know what? No one even noticed! Not only did I get away with it, no one cared! It was so liberating! From then on, I’ve had stress free, er, well, less stressful holidays because I just don’t do it. I worked my business and when Jan 5th rolled around and all the doggies went home I heaved a big sigh of relief. Then I celebrated that I had survived another year.
Now, after years of not doing the holidays, I suddenly find myself at home, with a baby, and joy of joys – no one else’s dogs at my house!!! I might, if I’m feeling fancy, send out a holiday email with a cute pic of my kid. I might not. People are so overwhelmed with stuff to do, lists, traveling and what not, I’m convinced that it’s not worth the effort to say hello to people during the holidays cause generally you just get lost in the pile. I’d rather send a summer family update, or remember your birthday.
Truly, this time of year, I look around at all the people driving themselves nuts, going into debt for the hottest toys, and dreading the inevitable family gathering, and I wonder, WHY? Why bother? Why torture yourself? Why not spend the time with people you actually like, or alone, or doing things you enjoy? I don’t get it. I really don’t. Part of this I’m sure is because I don’t consider myself Christian anymore, so the religious significance of the holiday is completely lost to me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge anyone their holiday spirit. I think it’s lovely that people celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, whatever. We just do it differently. We don’t worry about the gifts, the glitz, the food – we spend the time off together, we talk about our year, what we’ve accomplished, what we hope to do in the coming year.
This year, oddly, I’m hoping to put up a tree, in celebration of Winter. Mostly because I want to get out all the ornaments I grew up with and put them up. Just because I don’t believe in Christmas now doesn’t mean that I don’t have lots of happy memories from Christmas as a kid. Which leads to the question, now that you have a baby, what will you teach her? What will she celebrate? What traditions will she have? Truly, we haven’t decided yet. Pretty sure we’re going to celebrate the American holidays – 4th of July, Thanksgiving and such – and perhaps we’ll teach her about the Pagan holidays, which celebrate the changing of the seasons and teach respect for Mother Nature. Surely we’ll explain to her what these huge winter holidays are, what kid can make it through kindergarten without being asked what they want from Santa? But I intend to teach it to her as stories, sort of make believe.
This is a bit heavy for my cranky little blog, so I will leave you with this – I wish you the very best now and all year ’round – May you enjoy your holiday season in whatever way you choose to celebrate. Please remember, the best things aren’t things – it’s the people (and animals) you love and have with you every day. Tell them now, tell them in May, but tell them that you love them.
Go hug your dog!
Posted on December 19th, 2008 by michelle
Filed under: Random run ins, The Naked Part
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