All Better December 7, 2008

“And so the overly dramatic pregnant girl felt pretty sorry for herself.  But then she got her hands on Breaking Dawn, finally. And it was good. Really, really good. And she spent an entire day laying around, reading and napping and reading some more, because there were more than 700 pages to read. And they all lived happily ever after, which is good, because she would have thrown a big fit otherwise. And while her husband was somewhat disturbed, because he felt that normal people do not read that fast (and probably he suspects her of skimming, but she totally didn’t) the girl felt much refreshed in body and spirit. Because laying around all day and taking so many naps is probably exactly what she needed, and also because HER precious fetus will not be kicking so hard as to break her ribs any time soon. Just hard enough to bounce the book up and down a lot, since apparently 700 + page books are too heavy to be rested on the  Belly.

Additionally, the comments on her blog cheered her up quite a bit, too. The End.”

 

 

 

I am also pretty happy with life right now, because Joey and I got our Christmas tree yesterday, and a good bit of Christmas…junk, I suppose you would call it. I’m torn, because I read all these wonderful people blogging about how wasteful and commercialized Christmas is, how the real meaning has been completely sucked away and turned to stress and debt and vanity. And I think, I should fully agree with that! 

But at the core, I just don’t. If that is how typical Christmas observation makes you feel, I DO think you should find and embrace your alternative, absolutely. But it makes me happy, and warm, and I love it.

 

This probaby has a lot to do with (oh, Lord, here I go psychoanalyzing myself. AGAIN. ) the fact that the majority of my childhood Christmases were spent under the shadow of the Ghost of Bah, Humbug. Otherwise known as my ex-stepfather. I won’t say he went as far as suggesting that we all die sooner and decrease the surplus population, but he definitely felt that we had no right to be merry, we were poor enough*. And Christmas WAS nothing more than stress and money, greed and depression. I spent most of every Christmas season planning how I would celebrate when I had my own family, how I wouldn’t shoot down every last bit of excitement with what a waste of money it all was, or make people sad with pointedly un-presents, or alternately, crush them with a huge burden of expected gratitutde for real presents, and then punish them for months afterwards when it wasn’t met.

 

Last year was my first Christmas with Joey, and I’m sure he felt the strain of exorcising that ghost with me, balancing the need that we had as poor, struggling newlyweds to start small with the need that I had to ENJOY Christmas. And he balanced all that very well, because he is amazing like that, and I felt for the first time that I could relax and celebrate and give presents and be lighthearted, and it wasn’t overshadowed by any of those icky things. So this year, I don’t really feel any ghosts haunting me. I’m excited about the Christmas tree (which fell over somehow last night, but fortunately I hadn’t put any decorations on it yet) and the lights that Joey is going to put up on our house, and the presents that mamma and I bought my students, and the gingerbread house kit that I found last night, and the fact that WE will be hosting Christmas for one side of Joey’s family this year, and also the fact that next year we will have the cutest little girl in the world to introduce Christmas to and make her wear insanely froo-froo party dresses at the slightest provocation. And I have cards to send off to people, and cookies to make, and presents to find. Joey isn’t much fun to buy for this year, because he already HAS his big present. A family friend gave him a ridiculously big, fancy TV ( a MAN’S television) that they had replaced rather than repairing. So we got the insanely expensive parts to repair the TV as his big present. I personally would go through life content with a TV that cost the same as those parts and never feel even a little deprived. But I am thrilled to be able to get him one of his Big Three Items (a big screen TV, a big truck, and a laptop) so much sooner than I expected. And I will still be finding him smaller presents, because you HAVE to have things to unwrap!

McLovin was also our present to each other. But we have decided that this implies we were very, very bad all year.

 

If all this stuff didn’t make me happy and content, if we left the stores last night bickering and feeling irritated with each other rather than holding hands and enjoying each other’s enjoyment, if I felt like a stressed-out slave to retail… then I could whole-heartedly agree with all the wise people who dislike typical Christmases.  But that just isn’t the case for me, and I don’t see things changing anytime soon.

 

On a random note, McLovin was smothering my face with puppy love yesterday, and I SWORE it smelled like she had just brushed her teeth. Joey and I agreed that this was weird and impossible, and maybe the pregnancy nose was a bit haywire. But when we got home last night? I found a chewed-up travel-sized tube of Colgate in the family room. My nose was vindicated, once and for all.

 

Now I’m going to get dressed, clean up the house, and get to work on the CUTE cards I found last night. Because I want to and it makes me happy, and also because I finished Breaking Dawn, and what can you really read after that?

 

*My class spent the last week COMPLETELY immersed in A Christmas Carol, and so it has invaded my blog a little bit. I could probably quote a good third of the book, because we spent so much time Savoring The Language. Savoring is exactly the right word, too. I never knew a book could make you so hungry!