The Holidays Are A'Coming!

Yes, the holidays are on their way.

Am I excited? Oh yes.

Am I dreading it? Oh, most definitely.

I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I love the food, the family and the friends that I get to see. I don't want to necessarily see them all in my house at one time. LOL Seriously, I enjoy the cooking, eating and sharing of the food but not the anxiety, preparation and clean-up that goes with it. This year I will be baking the turkey for Thanksgiving rather than my husband putting it on the smoker. It's good either way but easier on me if I don't have to worry about Big Bird. We're actually doing our dinner on Thanksgiving Day. In the past, we've had The Dinner on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My husband is an avid whitetail hunter, we can't mess with the hunting schedule. He's slacked off alot over the years, not going every chance he gets. Since he doesn't consider it as necessary as breathing anymore, I don't mind him going on Thanksgiving morning. I'm thinking: nice little compromise....

When Thanksgiving is over, we put up the Christmas stuff. We have sooooo many decorations. I've tried in the past to just pick and choose over what we have, not put it all up. My own decorations were combined with my mother's decorations when we bought the house (and she lives with us). I'm willing to say we have at least 10 boxes (large plastic tubs!) if not more stored here. About 2 - 3 years ago, my sister said it looked like a little Christmas shop in town. She considered it an overkill; I considered it a compliment. LOL

Christmas (secularly) to us is about building up the atmosphere, the excitement and the good kind of anxiety for the kids. My husband was not a Christmas-y type person when we first got married. I think I've almost got him hooked. As above, I like the cooking, baking, decorating and giving of gifts. I do NOT like the shopping and wrapping, the wringing of hands over the bills that will come from Christmas, no matter how hard I tried to keep from spending too much.
I've tried every year to start my shopping early. There are pitfalls to that. I've found that if I shop early, I hide everything (of course). I promptly forget where I have hidden it or that I even had it. I panic, thinking that one or more of my kids are being short-changed on their presents. I run out in the (egad!) Christmas rush, the throng of people milling around the local Wal-Mart in search of something to make up the difference. (Did I mention I'm not a people person either so crowds make me tend to get realllllly cranky....) I run home with said presents only to find the ones I've hidden months earlier. Now my kids have way too much. Instead of taking something back and facing the crowds once again, I opt to give it to the kids. What a vicious Santa web I weave.

Oooooooo.... I also get that generous feeling too during the Christmas time. I want to make sure I give a little something to everybody I know, whether it's candy, a card or a small gift of some sort. What kind of whacko does that make me? I can't forget teachers, teacher assistants, co-workers of the hubby, boss of the hubby (wait, that'd be me... hehehee), my nice snake-killing neighbor, my invalid neighbor who bugs the crap out of my grandmama (who bugs her back!), the one nice nurse and cna for each family member in the nursing home, the ladies at the beauty shop (who can work miracles!), the family I've known forever who's going through a tough medical time right now, the nieces and nephews of my hubby..... you get the picture. I want to also buy my sister something nice as well as her family, my mother and father and both sets of grandparents, not to mention my kids and husband. There are also 3 birthdays in the month of December in my little circle of family and friends. My dad's birthday is Dec 24th. We used to be just as excited about that as Christmas itself.

Geeeeezzzz, I think I lost my mind somewhere in that paragraph.

Yes, the holidays are coming. I don't know if I'm ready or not. They'll be here anyway, might as well make the best of it....