Confession time: I haven't been in the Christmas frame of mind this year. I usually love it - I'm a total Christmas sap - but I haven't been in the mood for it this year - for Christmas carols, or shopping, or putting together neighbor gifts (even though I love my neighbors and friends to pieces and I'm excited as a little kid every time the doorbell rings). I've been feeling thoroughly grinchy.
I guess I've been too stressed out to enjoy anything. (Same old thing: balancing work and kids, and a part-time nanny who only shows up every now and then. Her reason for not showing up one day last week was, "My husband and I were up really late fighting and I'm tired." Oh. Well in THAT case, BY ALL MEANS take the day off and make me miss my meeting - AS LONG AS YOU'RE WELL RESTED.)
Anyway, the Christmas spirit, it's been kinda absent around here, even though we're going through the paces; so it was a good thing I had such a special experience last night. It totally changed my Christmas perspective.
I was at the store, and ran into this totally angelic looking, thin, pale little girl in the toy aisle, wearing only a very thin coat and stockings with holes, and a pair of wooden clogs, and I started following her around (in a non-creepy, pretending not to really follow her type way) and it turned out that this little girl wanted nothing more than to buy her almost dead father a nice pair of Christmas Shoes (JUST LIKE IN THE SONG, FREAKY!!!). But she didn't have enough money, and her grandmother didn't either, and she looked around crying, wondering aloud if anyone had a spare farthing they could give her. And when I saw that little girl crying, I remembered the TRUE meaning of Christmas (being poor sucks) and my heart grew two sizes in that very minute.
I didn't give her money for the shoes or anything, (because hey - times are tough) but it TOTALLY made me want to go shopping some more. I got my Christmas spirit back and got back in the zone and spent WADS of cash with a ginormous smile on my face.
Whew! That was a close one! Thanks little Christmas girl!
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O.K., FINE, so that didn't happen. Exactly. Although I'm pretty sure that's the ECONOMIC miracle a lot of people are hoping for.
What actually happened was that I ran my errands and stayed in an awful mood, turning the radio station with a shriek every time a Christmas song came on, like I was a vampire and it was my garlic.
HEARTWARMING, I know.
I was addressing some Christmas cards for the aforementioned neighbor gifts, and I had to resist the urge to write, "Merry Christmas, from my cold, dead heart to yours."
I thought that might be a little much.
But I'm happy to report (CHRISTMAS MIRACLE ALERT) that in the light of Christmas Eve morning, with a few days off from work, my husband home, the shopping all done, and excited kids running around repeating over and over again "tomorrow's Christmas!" - I'm kinda feeling it. Whew. Maybe my heart isn't a frozen lump of coal after all.
My husband took the kids to the store a few minutes ago to buy a few last minute things so I'm stealing a minute to blog, but after that we're off to do a bunch of Christmasy stuff together - and all of a sudden, I can't wait. Funny how that works.
Merry Christmas guys.
PS: Go visit Green Jello.
Comic Relief
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38 comments:
so glad you found the spirt. Could you send some my way? Still feeling like my heart is two sizes to small.
This is just the right kind of post for today. I'm just starting to feel it myself. I think I'll do better after a nap.
Merry Christmas to you all!
Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas, Sue!
I'll start feeling it after we get the house "Grandma" clean.
I'm with b. My house is nowhere near Grandma clean, and I'm feeling a bit grinchy "asking" for help. AGAIN. From my children who seem to think that computer games and running screaming through the house are the only things on the agenda for the day.
I know, they're just excited.
I wish I were 10 again.
Merry Christmas to you, though, Sue!!
I have no arms. Boys are so weird.
Merry Christmas!
I love how you make me laugh ---I say ditto to all that. Felt the same way
You all need a good dose of chocolate. Merry Christmas, daughter dear.
I have felt a little that way this year too. I was up until 1 am wrapping and all grouchy, but this morning when my kids starting running around all excited because of the presents, I felt better.
Hope you have a great Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you too!
The fun family stuff is what Christmas is really about. Have fun with it! Merry Christmas!
Wait, did you say Christmas was today? Crap.
Every year I say that it doesn't feel like Christmas. For some reason, in October when all the stores started putting up their stuff, it seemed like Christmas, but now that it's actually here, it doesn't. Weird.
Anyway, Merry Christmas!
Your post is so funny, I am feeling the same way, in fact at work I have been listening to the 80's music so I don't have to listen to Christmas music today. I have all my shopping done, all the neighbor gifts done, etc, etc, still not feeling it. I am afraid this year, christmas will be gone and my cold dead heart will do a little jump of joy that it's over. Sad huh?
I Le'HATE that song! I heard it this morning and pictured this poor dying woman feigning a smile as her son put his too-small gift on her feet. Among her last thoughts: "ouch, these shoes pinch."
I love Christmas. I love giving. I love sentimentality. I hate that song.
With all the stress you have been under, I don't blame you for not feeling Christmasey (tho, I wouldn't blame you anyway, not my place). I think you are just fantastic to do all that you do esp. the Nie-Nie book which has been a huge sacrifice of your time and let's face it, time is money! Thank you for doing it and I'm so glad that you are getting a few days of Christmas fun. May it be the best Christmas ever!
There's something in the water - hardly anyone I know feels Christmasy this year. I didn't start to feel it until my friend posted the McKenzie Brothers' version of "12 Days of Christmas" on her blog today. And even that didn't help much. But I know things will look differently tomorrow. Merry Christmas from my cold, dead heart to yours!:-D
Merry Christmas! It would sound creepy to say I've really missed you, so I won't say it. But I hope it will be a great rest for you.
(Doorbell just rang. Goodies, I think - oh, nope, something else from a neighbor, that I was about to describe but realized I'd go off on a massively-long tangent.)
I'd never heard the song in question until my daughter came home form a friend's house the other day and sang it to me. And I sat on the couch and listened and . . . cried. I'm blaming it on the pregnancy hormones. Or on the high quality of my daughter's rendition.
May you have an adequate Christmas. Just kidding! Merry Christmas, kid. You deserve it!
Luv and all that stuff. J
Wow! "Merry Christmas, from my cold, dead heart to yours." You don't have a copyright on that, do you? Cuz I'd like to use it next year...
Merry stinking Christmas to you!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!
dawn
Love it. I haven't been in the Christmas spirit much after this last month, my house is a total disaster and I'm wishing it still were three weeks away.
Until last night, anyway. When we finally got up the blasted tree and figured out where all the branches went, and had to string the lights TWICE because some of the new ones didn't work.
Then we turned on the tree when it was done, and it shone like a Christmas beacon. The kids were laughing and dancing. Now it's Christmas.
I could've written this post. Except without all the funny 'cuz I just can't seem to pull it off in blogland. (I'm MUCH funnier in real life, I swear.)
But this season has been kind of a bore for me, and my sweet husband said the kids didn't need any more toys, and so whatever I bought was going to have to come out of my barely-enough-anyway grocery money. Bah humbug. But I found some extra cash and bought a few things.
Perhaps I should've tried your tattered clothes and wooden shoes bit.
But now it's TOMORROW and we're wrapping presents and watching A Christmas Story and I'm happy.
Merry Christmas friend!
You and me both, honey. My heart didn't start thawing until I opened my 6-year-old's gift to me this evening.
I can't commiserate because I love Christmas and I DON'T EVEN GET SNOW but I don't want to aggravate you with my super happy Christmasness so I won't say anything else. Except Merry Christmas! (That's it, I swear!)
You're a SPAZ, Sue! You totally had me going with that story! Seems like you've done that to me before...hmmm.
I'm guessing it's the economy that's gotten us all down about Christmas. Because none of us can really afford it this year but we all want to so we either go to drastic measures to make it happen (like go without toilet paper, etc) or we go into debt or whatever else.
I'm glad you were able to come out of your funk just in the (Saint) nick of time!
And to "Wonder Woman": I feel ya! I'm seriously the funniest person I know in real life. Just not so much when I blog about it. Why is that? Sue, you've got a great talent!
Heart you!!!
Well it's now Christmas night and I've loved every minute of it- seriously- but now I'm suddenly done. It's over and I'm ready to take down the tree, take my house back, pack up the Christmas records (so to speak), and move on. And sleep. And not cook again for a week.
It's just not the same when you don't feel that spirit, is it? a very kind gentlemen passed on the christmas spirit to me this year, just in the nick of time! Makes all the difference in the world!
I was pretty grinchy this year. Christmas eve I finally snapped out of it, and we had a pretty nice Christmas.
As for the "Christmas shoes" song, I've told my children that if I'm ever dying on Christmas eve, I want them to stay home and spend time with me instead of going out to buy me a pair of shoes.
"Merry Christmas, from my cold, dead heart to yours."
That is SO funny. I would've loved getting a card that honest!
I'm glad your heart warmed up, though.
Um, vampires are fine with garlic. Didn't you read the expose, um, I mean that novel? Hehe.
Merry to you too.
I came here because I was going to tell you something. But now I can't remember what it was. I've done the tithing accounting today, and set up the hymns for 2009 and now I'm going to do something with this mound of empty gift boxes. But suddenly, there was something I had to say to you. So my brain is falling apart, i guess. Maybe just a preview of things to come.
It was something nice. I can just say again what a lovely little vacation it is every time I come over here to read. Thanks. Your grinch helped kill mine. I don't think it's the economy, by the way—I think there's something else going on. It's the whole world. It's maybe the feeling we're getting that the world we believe in doesn't turn out to be "real."
But mostly, I think it's because there was no time between Thanksgiving and December 1st. Just a weekend. Not enough time to transition. Or maybe we're losing hope? Or maybe we need to lose more stuff till we remember what's important. It always just gripes me when people talk about those poor, poor kids who aren't going to "get anything" for Christmas. As if that's what's important. It was never the stuff I worried about for my kids; presents are fun to give. But if my kids had never "gotten" anything, it wouldn't really have put much of a dent in what Christmas is.
We'd have read The Christmas Carol out loud, played games and eaten pancakes with powdered sugar on them - and singing, there'd have been singing.
What the "wretched kids" need isn't a box with a toy inside, it's parents they can respect, and a calm understanding that the best gift you can give yourself if realizing that you can give something.
Oh. Woops. This was not at all what I was going to say. I think I'm so tired that I'm running off at the keyboard. Maybe it was just, thanks for cheering up my heart.
K, that was a fantastic comment.
Thanks-a-roonie.
It is funny how that works isn't it?
PS I also HATE that song. And the other night it came on, so I changed it, and the next station was playing it too, so I changed it again and... You get the idea. It was Christmas shoes HELL!
I hate Christmas music.
I'm glad you found your Christmas shoes spirit. :)
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