Anyway, I will blog this year because I feel the need to talk to myself through all of you! Today I want to discuss something that I noticed this Christmas ---- where was the SPIRIT?? Beginning with Chip & Jeanne's party in November, Chuck and I have logged almost 3,000 miles traveling to and from Alabama for the holidays!! Please show me in the "family handbook" where it says that if you are the one who moves, the burden of travel falls on you! Needless to say with all the changes and work related stress, the fact that I was sick with bronchitis the weekend I had designated to shop and decorate and facing more travel, this Christmas I was the proverbial GRINCH! Well, that's a stretch, more likely I could have given GRINCH lessons!!
Once I realized there was no way I had the energy to decorate anything, house, tree, nothing, I resigned myself to having a less than stellar holiday season! The tree was up, pre-lit, so at least it didn't look like a big fir sitting in the front room! For a week boxes and boxes of decorations sat in the dining room, unopened! The bad part is I did not care if the tree ever had decorations, I didn't care if Chuck took it down and boxed it up, I just wanted the whole thing to be over!! You know your holiday is not going to live up to your expectations when you go to buy your annual Santa, choose an Irish Santa complete with pot of gold and beautiful green eyes and he falls over in the back of your car and breaks his neck! What can I say!! From now until eternity when I get that Santa out I will be checking to make sure the gorilla glue is still holding! You know what they say, Murphy's Law --- well, my Mother's maiden name was Murphy - 'nuff said!
So I scurried through the annual Cookie Swap, I shopped when I had to for the next upcoming event, I cooked in Alabama, I cooked in Tampa and everything I did just became a steady routine of 'have to". The upside of Christmas Bah-Humbug 2010 was spending time with my friends and family, especially having all my grandchildren together in Alabama -- that was wonderful ---- finished off the holiday with a stomach virus one of the kids passed around!!! YAY! The morning after Christmas Chuck took down the tree and put it and all the boxes of decorations away and we chalked up another holiday! Chip did come over one day when he was off, out of the goodness of his heart, and he man-decorated the tree, red balls, green balls, gold balls, all the same size! It was beautiful!
Now I sit here at 11:58 in the morning on New Year's Eve in my pajamas, working at the computer instead of doing all the things around here that need doing. It is now that I realize my problem wasn't the holidays, the problem was I simply was not motivated to "do" the holidays because (1) no one was coming to visit, (2) no one was coming for dinner or drinks (3) no one was coming!!! My favorite Christmas since we have moved to Florida (with the exception of December 25, 2008 when Addy was born) was the year Ellen and her family came for a visit and we went to Disney World and I cooked and I decorated and I planned!!! It was awesome, John & Dillie came, Rachael, Wade and Carson came - it was great!! This is what holidays are about!!
This Christmas was truly the first, honest, bittersweet Christmas I have had since we left Alabama. Each year, for as many years as I can remember, my family came from Dothan and spent the entire weekend with us the weekend before Christmas. We called it the "Dothan" Christmas! The cooking, planning, shopping -- I loved all of it! I always thought traditions were forever but we soon find out they are not so we need to treasure them while we can. For those of you who still live within spitting distance of your children and grandchildren --- you may believe you are lucky -- but you probably have no idea how lucky you really, truly are!!
My life began to change when Rachael moved to Georgia, several years later more change when we moved to Florida. 2006 was one of the worst years and best years of my life all rolled into one. How can I embrace this new holiday season without my old traditions? How can I be excited about spending eons of time traveling and still enjoy myself? What are my new traditions ----- that is the issue!! I don't have any!!! I feel like a stranger in my own holiday nightmare! My prayer for Christmas 2011 is to remember everyday between now and then that I am fortunate, I am blessed, I should be (as Paul said) happy in whatever circumstance I am in because I know that God has a plan for me. Sometimes I am impatient for the plan to unfold, sometimes I am haughty and I believe not even He understands how I feel, but I know better!! 2011 is going to be another year of changes for me and I am promising myself and all of you, right here, right now sitting in my pjs, that whatever comes my way this year, I will look for the blessings in it! I will treasure the little things, and the big things and I WILL FIND A WAY TO MAKE MY OWN TRADITIONS!!
I guess everyone has to have a GRINCH Christmas sometime to help us gain some perspective into how we need to move forward!! That is what I am going to do -- move forward!!!
OK - no more drama - I just want all of you to have a wonderful holiday, what remains of it!!! Onward and upward - new motto!! Change - my best friend ---- traditions on the way!!
P.S. This year for Christmas Chuck bought me something I have wanted for years ---- a RED KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer with an Ice Cream Maker attachment!! The attachment made it in tact - the mixer turned out to be an electric 4-wheel Kawasaki bike for a little boy!! I might take my Irish Santa for a ride later - I'll just be sure to take the gorilla glue!!! LOVE ---- ME!
