Do you ever wonder why so many Adults have such a weird Love/Hate relationship with the holiday of Christmas? I’ll tell you why….
IT NEVER ENDS!
This time of year feels special, right? We look forward to watching happy children, opening gifts. They have that special twinkle in their eyes, every day leading up to that wonderful, much anticipated day…
That Special Day.
We get to see family members we haven’t seen in, what seems like forever. There is a Delicious Feast of Food to satisfy our bellies. We get to see some holiday movies to warm our hearts. Some folks find happiness in volunteering time to raising money for charity, during this season. Some folks even attend special events, shows, other traditional gatherings, etc.
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What’s NOT to love about it all?
Where does the Hate part come in?
I’ll tell you where!
It Never Ends.
The Good Stuff…
Let’s start with my favorite part. I absolutely do have a kid like approach to Christmas. I blame my mom, dad, grandparents for that. They ruined me. I can not go through a Christmas without trying to keep the magic alive in some fashion. Love it all!
I know…we all go through the whole cooking, cleaning, picking up tinsel from the floor 3 months later, etc. However, those things seem so small in comparison to the brighter notes of the season. So what is there to hate?
Our family is complicated, like most. The very same people you are excited to see, are the very same people you strive to avoid most of the year.
It’s kind of like, “Hey! Oh my, it’s been soo long!”
Then, it quickly turns into you taking a walk outside to smoke a cigarette or take the small shot of rum you packed in your purse for the gathering.
It’s very confusing to say the least.
However, I love the whispers. I learned at a very young age that adults can be far better at being sneaky, than children. They also don’t give a crap about you. The adults huddle in a football stance somewhere in the house to communicate who is getting what, and for whom. It doesn’t matter if a child is in distress….if you interrupt the commiserating, you will be kicked out of the room.
“We’ll tend to you later, once all of the wrapping is done and you’re in bed!” is usually the overall sentiment.
The “I could do without” stuff….
Getting back to the hate part…we have 2-3 Christmas obligations per year. We have our little family situation where it’s just the 3 of us…Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We then have a separate gathering for the rest of the family in the state we live in. Following those activities, we proceed to travel to a state away a week or so after Christmas, to see the other side of the family.
I love seeing my family. I just really wish it could all be done in one conveniently planned day!
My second shopping trip now begins…look at this smiley face :/
Yeah well, at least there is Amazon.
Something different….
We did do something a bit different this year in terms of the Christmas Feast. We threw the ham into the oven as usual. Instead of doing the traditional sides we typically do every year, we decided to go with a Breakfast/Dinner mashup.
I would only mention this if I thought perhaps the rest of you could benefit from a different perspective next year.
That being said, we made a simple egg, cheese, and green onion Frittata. It takes only about 10-15 minutes of prep time. Throw it into the oven for about 30 minutes (depending on the recipe you are using). Done.
(Tip: We used a pie dish this time and cut it into 8 slices for serving. Perfect little egg on the plate.)
We cut a few potatoes (russet, yukon, red…doesn’t matter) into bite sized pieces and threw them onto a separate sheet pan. Then, we added some diced green peppers, yellow onion, bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil. We let ’em roast in the oven for about 40 minutes, with a flip half way through…Done.
We steamed a pound or so of asparagus. Again, easy. We trimmed the bottom stems, and threw them into a microwave safe dish with just a quarter inch of water (covered). We set the microwave to cook on high for 3 minutes, check the tenderness, and let the asparagus cook a few minutes longer in the microwave until it reached the desired consistency. Done.
The most time consuming part was the making of pancakes. We pulled out the stove top griddle and cooked a dozen pancakes while the rest of the food was cooking in the oven or in the microwave. As we were cooking the pancakes, we let them pile on a large plate off to the side. We covered them to keep them warm, as we proceeded. Done. You might have to flash them in the microwave right before serving, but that only takes a minute or two.
That was Christmas dinner.
Let’s face it…. the amount of time you take to make the house seem warm, cozy, and jovial during this time of year, requires a tremendous amount of energy. The very last thing you want to do is to wake up early on Christmas morning, clean up the living room as the kids throw wrapping paper wherever, just to get to that anticipated gift….followed by helping them assemble their lovely gifts after you just spent an hour wrestling with the packaging just to get to that prized possession…
Then, go and cook a huge feast only a month after having a Thanksgiving Feast.
Hell to the No!
I might sound a bit grumpy with this post, but I am so ready to be Done with this holiday season. I can definitely wait another year before it all happens again.
Don’t get me wrong. I do very much love the shenanigans, family time, good food, hiding of gifts, the Norad tracker, the movies, the absolute Everything.
But damn, am I ready to rest for a long winter’s night!
I hope this post finds you all in good spirits. If you feel as exhausted as I do currently, do yourself a small favor….
Find a quiet space, grab yourself a nice glass of wine, tea (or another favorite drink), put on some happy music (or a movie)...
Light one of your favorite Candles…
And finally…Breathe.
Good luck to you all!
(I still have stuff to do!)
