So Christmas 2007 is in the books...whew! I have such a love/hate relationship with the holidays. I'm a total grinch as they approach, knowing that there is so much to do and so little time to get it done, but I do enjoy Christmas Day, sharing our gifts and then lolling around the house for the day with no other obligations. We each enjoy the day in our own way. Meredith revels in staying in her pajamas and watching the "Christmas Story" marathon, Brendan spends the day in the kitchen preparing the traditional Roast Beast (aka Beef Wellington), and Isla hangs out in front of the fire. This year she got a new bed and she thought she was in heaven when we put it down on the living room floor. She lolled in it all day like a movie star, flipping over onto her back occasionally and snoring like a drunken sailor. She even ignored the bags of treats sitting just a few feet away. She LOVES her new bed!
The house looks great. Meredith supervised the decorating when she got home so everything was positioned perfectly. We had a beautiful day to go up to the mountain to get the tree.
It fit perfectly in the living room (unlike other years when we have grossly misjudged size and ended up with a tree behemoth or a puny Charlie Brown tree.)
And with the ornaments in place, it was stunning!
Even Isla got into the spirit...sort of.
That was NOT one of her favorite holiday moments, to be sure.
I got in a few hours of delicious, uninterrupted knitting, putting a few more inches on Meredith's DNA scarf...
...and finishing the first "hooray for me glove" (complete with GI-normous thumb that will most definitely need some tinking!)
I mentioned the love/hate relationship with Christmas earlier. Here is the part that I hate. It should be about the joys we find in our time together, sharing family traditions, and being thankful for all of the graces that God has granted us. Instead we become saturated with materialism and greed. It becomes about receiving the perfect gifts and the disappointment that ensues if we don't. The media whips us into a virtual feeding frenzy of "gimme, gimme" starting earlier and earlier every year. Somewhere in the chaos we lose all sense of joy and serenity. The holidays should be about finding peace and contentment and instead it ends up breeding resentment and anxiety. There isn't enough time or money or energy to make it the "perfect" experience we want it to be. We end up exhausted, angry, disappointed and broke! And next year we get to do it all over again. My suggestion: No gifts for anyone and instead we donate the outrageous amount of money spent to the Salvation Army, the Animal Refuge Shelter or some other needy cause. Or we specify that we will only exchange handmade gifts and limit it to one apiece. I'm ready to declare war on the commercialism and self-centeredness that has replaced the true meaning of the season. Merry Christmas!
1 comment:
Hi Mary Ann,
Glad to see that you made it through Christmas! I feel the same way about the materialism of Christmas and counting the number of presents to make sure that noone has hurt feelings about getting one more or one less present than everyone else. I have tried desperately to find a way to limit the buying but the disappointment factor and the sad faces that happen every time I bring it up - just isn't worth it.
Love the knitting! Hope to see you soon - Sue
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