In most ways, this was one of the nicest Christmases that I’ve experienced in a long time. Everything felt low-key and stress-free and there was pretty much no family drama. Not that there’s usually any family drama, but you will find our family photo under the word “chaos” in most modern dictionaries. I kept my expectations for the holidays pretty low, which meant that I was able to enjoy the aspects of the season that I love (spending time with family, eggnog) and not worry to much about things like how clean the house was and if my Christmas presents were good enough.
Because, let’s face it, once you unleash a five-year-old and a two-year-old on your living room and the rest of your family deposits their coats, bags and various other accoutrements around your house…. well, does it really matter if your husband is gathering the world’s largest collection of receipts on your kitchen counter? Kristian ran the vacuum cleaner at some ungodly hour of night that made me glad we don’t live in a townhouse or apartment building lest we be ritualistically slaughtered by angry neighbors and I over-decorated the hell out of the dining room. And then I called it a day. Because that’s just how I roll.
I did stress for a bit about Christmas presents, but I think I managed to come up with some decently thoughtful ideas. And if I whiffed big time? Everyone in our life is too polite to speak up and say how much they hated what I got them. Which is why, next year, everyone is getting socks and coffee table books about swiss-cheese making. It’s going to be so much easier that way!
I put my foot down for an entire 24 hours when I told Kristian that I had taken care of half of the people that he needed to buy for. I informed him that he was now in charge of finishing up shopping while I took charge of drinking eggnog and napping on the couch. Alas, it was not to be. If Christmas presents were a giant game of chicken, I definitely blinked first. He didn’t make any present buying motions, so I pretty much finished up for him. This is the part of the blog entry where I make another joke about buying people socks and we pretend that I don’t secretly love taking care of Kristian’s shopping.
(Shhhhhh!)
The flip side of our quiet Christmas is that most of the quiet was the result of hosting about half the usual number of suspects on Christmas Day. Even a house full of coma patients would start to feel chaotic if you packed them into your living room tightly enough, and we’re a pretty rowdy bunch. With “only” nine guests as opposed to the eighteen or so that we usually host, things couldn’t help but be more mellow. And I would give up all the peace and quiet in the world to have all of my sisters with me on Christmas.
There are lots of great aspects in growing up. Setting your own bed time and eating candy for dinner are two plusses that spring to mind. Not to mention wine. But one of the less fun parts of getting older is that your sisters start to form families of their own and then they don’t always spend their holidays with you. I love that I have such a great relationship with my sisters. And I think that it’s great that they get along so well with their own in-laws. But I sure did miss them on Christmas.
(We won’t even get into the whole elderly relatives dying aspect of growing up).
(This blog post is depressing me enough as it is).
On a more positive note, Santa was very good to me this year. And by “Santa”, I mean “Kristian.” And by “very good” I mean “bought me a new point and shoot digital camera.” Theoretically, this means that I’ll be posting more pictures on this here blog.
(Theoretically).
I love my dSLR, but sometimes it’s a little too unwieldy to drag around with me. My iPhone takes decent photos under optimal conditions (plenty of light, nobody jumping around too quickly). But when was the last time you wanted to take a photo under optimal conditions? Answer: pretty much never. And I’m pretty sure I left my phone at home that day. Which is why I’m so psyched about my new camera.
I should probably show you some pictures from said camera, but they’re all upstairs and I have a very important “napping on the couch while drinking eggnog” schedule to maintain. I mean, New Years is this weekend. I have to live it up while I can.
