Just finished reading a friend's blog, and was relieved to find that David and I weren't the only ones whose Christmas spirit ran out a little prematurely (compared to other years). The day after Christmas, we took down our tree and most of the misc decorations, except for snowflakes here and there. (I love snowflakes!) Part of the problem was that we didn't find our decor aesthetically pleasing. In fact, it seemed to become a blemish on our otherwise carefully planned rooms. The tree especially was awkward, though we were fiercely loyal about trying to love it. Maybe we were just more intent than usual on the true meaning of Christmas... I'm almost willing to skip the halabaloo next year. I talked to one friend at our Christmas party who said that her family didn't do all the decorations, etc, and gave each person only one gift, that had to be homemade. Next year we're determined to make all of our gifts more "from us personally"- probably homemade in some way. And we (especially David) would regret skipping the hype entirely if there were kids in our home to share it with. So it will stay, and perhaps we'll learn to do it better, more balanced, in the years to come.
It doesn't help much that we felt like we were celebrating Christmas in early spring (though this may be accurate to the true Nativity). The weather this past few weeks has been scarcely less than Balmy (a five-letter curse word in our house this time of year). But it has helped in keeping us committed to taking Sunday walks together... The rain let up just long enough for us to walk for over a mile today. This is a resolution I am anticipating continuing.
Happy New Year's Eve.
4 comments:
for the first time this year on todd's side of the family we exchanged names and committed to making a gift for the person whose name we drew. i have to admit i was grumpy about it as crunch time approached and was resolute in my decision to ban the process next year. i was soundly overruled by absolutely everyone else. so i guess we're doing it again next year. my suggestion is that you allow females to chose females and males to chose males. (i also made that suggestion to our family, but even the males agree that it's easier to make something for a female than for their own gender!)
perhaps your experience will be better...
and why can i not have my old display name anymore?
I love giving, and making, gifts for people. I just don't like it when it's for dozens of people at the same time! Way too stressful . . .
I agree about the weather. Every time it rains I resent the fact that it isn't snow, while at the same time appreciating that our utility bills will be much lower this winter (hopefully!).
First time to have a real tree since moving to the DR in 03, and Shan's tree was dropping needles when we put it up 2 weeks before Christmas...gggrrrrr!!!
Oh well....as for the weather...boys and I were trying to pretend that the frost on the ground on the way to school this morning was really snow. and to top it off Saturday is going to be 65*...this is crazy....could we have a few inches of what Denver has been getting? is that too much to ask for?
i want in. help!
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