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Do you enjoy the holidays?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hound dog" data-source="post: 491146" data-attributes="member: 84"><p>Christmas is my holiday. It's the only one I truly get pleasure out of. Halloween is ok........but nothing compares to xmas. </p><p></p><p>As a kid xmas basically svcked from every angle. We got to spring clean type clean the house just so we could put up mom's idea of decorations.......fake tree, red and blue glass balls, too many icicles.....and silver garland around the ceiling also with red and blue glass balls. About as bland as her xmas cheer. There were few presents under the tree and none of them were ever what you wanted or asked for, usually they were second hand or underwear. whoopee! So one stopped believing in santa rather quickly, otherwise you'd have to think you were a really bad kid, because surely Santa couldn't get it wrong every xmas. Then if mom wasn't being paranoid over her family members we might get to eat at the big family dinner, but usually she was being paranoid so we didn't do that but a few times. And other than plenty of good food.......that made it worse when you were little to see cousins get tons of gifts when you got squat. </p><p></p><p>But as a kid I somehow learned to make xmas special despite all that. I honestly dunno how. But I'd wait and wait until I saw the Norelco Santa commercial every year and Rudolf on tv along with the other specials and I swear I lived vicariously through them. Swearing the whole time that I'd have xmases like I dreamed of as a kid when I became a grown up. </p><p></p><p>Since husband and I moved 2 states away from my family shortly after we married, it was basically just us. We did spend Christmas day with his parents, sometimes his brother and family, but usually with just his parents. Sometimes, ok just about every darn year, my mom and step dad would visit at xmas too. But I worked hard to make xmas the special holiday I wanted.......and not just that day but for the entire month. I still do.</p><p></p><p>This year with husband having been gone only 3 months there is a big gaping hole. I want to rush to him with my xmas finds to listen to him grump over the money I spent while his eyes twinkle, because it was all an act. But I can't do that anymore. The other day I watched the Bishop's Wife alone, tears swimming in my eyes. On xmas eve I'll watch It's a Wonderful Life for the first time in 28 yrs alone. It's what husband and I did every xmas eve which was our "2nd' anniversary. (we divorced / remarried on dec 24th) We'd sit with the lights out and the xmas tree lights on drinking my homemade hot cocoa and munching popcorn. Why will I watch it alone? Because that movie reminds me we're all here for a reason, and to appreciate what we do have no matter what happens. </p><p></p><p>Travis and I spent all day wrapping gifts. Children's gifts are finally all wrapped. Adults hopefully won't take too long as I want to finish the cleaning with plenty of time to bake if I want to. While I do these things my house is filled with xmas carols blaring. Oddly I've found you can laugh and cry at the same time.</p><p></p><p>I dunno. I suppose most people would say I don't have a whole lot to feel merry about this year. And in some ways I don't I suppose. But I've found that the magic that is xmas doesn't just wash over a person, you have to work at that magic so the teeny spark can develop into an outright flame. I don't know if it's attitude or what. I didn't start the season thinking I'd get much pleasure out of it. But I made myself get started, and do many of the things I normally do and it just happened the way it always happens. </p><p></p><p>For all the 11 other months out of the year I'm a bonafide pessimist to the nth degree. December comes and I'm all about the magic....... No, not everyone has it. And sometimes you have to look really hard to find it, but it's there. 3S I feel for that young mom who fell and no one helped her. But I can counter that with the woman in walmart who spent thousands of her own dollars paying off total strangers layaway bills so they could have xmas, and others who followed suit. And those who give so heartily to Toys for Tots, food pantries, churches, individuals they know in a meager attempt to make someone's life a tad brighter for at least one month or one day out of the year. For the month of December I simply refuse to see the bad in the world and focus totally on the good.</p><p></p><p>While I don't have husband to share my xmas with this year, I do have my wonderful children and grandchildren and my furbabies. I don't have much in this world, but what I do have is priceless.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hound dog, post: 491146, member: 84"] Christmas is my holiday. It's the only one I truly get pleasure out of. Halloween is ok........but nothing compares to xmas. As a kid xmas basically svcked from every angle. We got to spring clean type clean the house just so we could put up mom's idea of decorations.......fake tree, red and blue glass balls, too many icicles.....and silver garland around the ceiling also with red and blue glass balls. About as bland as her xmas cheer. There were few presents under the tree and none of them were ever what you wanted or asked for, usually they were second hand or underwear. whoopee! So one stopped believing in santa rather quickly, otherwise you'd have to think you were a really bad kid, because surely Santa couldn't get it wrong every xmas. Then if mom wasn't being paranoid over her family members we might get to eat at the big family dinner, but usually she was being paranoid so we didn't do that but a few times. And other than plenty of good food.......that made it worse when you were little to see cousins get tons of gifts when you got squat. But as a kid I somehow learned to make xmas special despite all that. I honestly dunno how. But I'd wait and wait until I saw the Norelco Santa commercial every year and Rudolf on tv along with the other specials and I swear I lived vicariously through them. Swearing the whole time that I'd have xmases like I dreamed of as a kid when I became a grown up. Since husband and I moved 2 states away from my family shortly after we married, it was basically just us. We did spend Christmas day with his parents, sometimes his brother and family, but usually with just his parents. Sometimes, ok just about every darn year, my mom and step dad would visit at xmas too. But I worked hard to make xmas the special holiday I wanted.......and not just that day but for the entire month. I still do. This year with husband having been gone only 3 months there is a big gaping hole. I want to rush to him with my xmas finds to listen to him grump over the money I spent while his eyes twinkle, because it was all an act. But I can't do that anymore. The other day I watched the Bishop's Wife alone, tears swimming in my eyes. On xmas eve I'll watch It's a Wonderful Life for the first time in 28 yrs alone. It's what husband and I did every xmas eve which was our "2nd' anniversary. (we divorced / remarried on dec 24th) We'd sit with the lights out and the xmas tree lights on drinking my homemade hot cocoa and munching popcorn. Why will I watch it alone? Because that movie reminds me we're all here for a reason, and to appreciate what we do have no matter what happens. Travis and I spent all day wrapping gifts. Children's gifts are finally all wrapped. Adults hopefully won't take too long as I want to finish the cleaning with plenty of time to bake if I want to. While I do these things my house is filled with xmas carols blaring. Oddly I've found you can laugh and cry at the same time. I dunno. I suppose most people would say I don't have a whole lot to feel merry about this year. And in some ways I don't I suppose. But I've found that the magic that is xmas doesn't just wash over a person, you have to work at that magic so the teeny spark can develop into an outright flame. I don't know if it's attitude or what. I didn't start the season thinking I'd get much pleasure out of it. But I made myself get started, and do many of the things I normally do and it just happened the way it always happens. For all the 11 other months out of the year I'm a bonafide pessimist to the nth degree. December comes and I'm all about the magic....... No, not everyone has it. And sometimes you have to look really hard to find it, but it's there. 3S I feel for that young mom who fell and no one helped her. But I can counter that with the woman in walmart who spent thousands of her own dollars paying off total strangers layaway bills so they could have xmas, and others who followed suit. And those who give so heartily to Toys for Tots, food pantries, churches, individuals they know in a meager attempt to make someone's life a tad brighter for at least one month or one day out of the year. For the month of December I simply refuse to see the bad in the world and focus totally on the good. While I don't have husband to share my xmas with this year, I do have my wonderful children and grandchildren and my furbabies. I don't have much in this world, but what I do have is priceless. [/QUOTE]
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