Bah Humbug
I haven’t been feeling the whole Christmas thing this year. I know that part of that is the Christmas Creep the retailers impose on us. When Christmas trees start appearing in stores in September I totally roll my eyes. By October, I’m sort of intrugied and start to think of the season ahead, and by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I’m ready for Christmas. But….Christmas is still a month away. And by the middle of december, I am OVER it.
There is so much to do. Some of it involves traditions that I do actually like – christmas cards, for example. Others are things I would really rather do without – buying presents out of responsibility/a show of respect for people that we never see or talk too. But all of it adds up to SO MUCH TO DO. I end up stressed out and not really enjoying anything to do with the season.
Today was shaping up to be one of those days. I had a vacation day to burn, so I took today off from work. The husband and I dropped the little one off at school, grabbed a bite to eat and braved the malls for a little getting towards the last minute shopping. And then I had to go make latkes. Which I love, and I generally enjoy doing, but with everything else (like a dinner I have to cook tomorrow and presents that need to be wrapped for tomorrow, and oh, I should probably buy the food that we need for tomorrow) hanging over my head, I just couldn’t process.
But there were latkes that needed to be made (for tomorrow). So off I went to Kiki and Gunkle’s house. (Thankfully, the husband went off to food shop before heading to his office, so yay!)
And I proceeded to have the best time ever. Perhaps it was our totally silly Order of the Latke aprons that Kiki picked up. Or the setting off of the fire alarm. Or the champagne. Or the testing of each batch of latkes as they came out of the oil. Or fighting Gunkle for perfectly crispy pieces of latke. But whatever it was…it was awesome.
And it was a nice reminder that sometimes in the middle of all the insanity that we put ourselves through in the quest for the perfect holiday, sometimes we just have to slow down for a minute and appreciate what we have around us. The rest can wait.
I do enjoy that being jewish for the afternoon helped you feel less stressed about christmas. go latkes!