26 December 2010

Fa la la la la and Ladeda

I always feel that Christmas is forced on us. It's all about commerce, not so much religion. Retailers need Christmas to make the money they need to stay in business. They start out advertising earlier and earlier each year. Without them, would we get in the Christmas mood? It takes months to get us there. Then it's a flurry of buying and wrapping and stressing and cooking and eating and presents. Then returns and bargains and clean up and it's over for another year. This is not to say I don't like Christmas. I'd just like it every other year.

I'm sitting in my cozy family room gazing at this...


I love Christmas decorations. My house looks much better decorated for Christmas and I actually would love to keep this scene up all year long. Of course, I won't. I'm never in the mood to decorate until I actually do it. The thought of doing it is always harder than the actual 'doing'. Having my book club get-together the first Sunday of December makes me "get 'er done" and gives me lots of time to enjoy my holiday-themed house. Having a Christmas party every year helps too. I'm pretty organized in how I store everything and I have pictures of each decorated area, so it's easy to set up. Having a very early Hanukkah was helpful this year. So was having only a few people to shop for. So see, I'm not complaining. I'm just saying. The living room, where the tree is set up and all the presents unwrapped, is a disaster area. I'm pretending it's not there which is easy because I don't have to pass it to go to the rooms I use.

Rob came down on Thursday night and stayed through yesterday noon. Emily, Rob and I had a nice Christmas Eve together. It was a first for us. I'm usually all alone but this year I had my favorites with me. Rob had shopping to do on Friday, and we had fun doing it together. Emily told Rob NO gift cards for gifts. We put together gift bags of goodies from Trader Joe's for his family to supplement what he'd already bought. We went to my salon and I cut his hair. We went to Borders where I sipped and read and he shopped. We went to Sam's Club and had an easy check-out at the pharmacy counter. We had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Pei Wei (and our leftovers for dinner). It was a fun day and a fun night. I opened gifts from my clients till a bored Emily and Rob left me. Then we all went to bed.

Christmas morning was comfortable and relaxed. Everyone was happy with their gifts. Emily loved all the clothes I bought her except one top. I was SO happy. Clothes are very hard to buy for someone else and she knows she has my OK to return anything. I did good this year! Rob only had to return his slippers. Not bad. Emily left for her dad's at about 11:00, Rob for his family at 1:00 and me for my brother and SIL at 1:30. And here's the pics! Slide-show them for the best view.

Christmas 2010

I went out prior to our 'big snowstorm' this morning for toilet paper and ingredients to make turkey soup. I was down to one roll in a 3-bathroom house. Our big storm brought us a dusting, thank goodness. I hope it stays that way. It's in the 20's and the wind is gusting. I'm wearing my Cuddleduds under my pj's under my fluffy robe. My house smells just heavenly from the soup. It's the same one I made after Thanksgiving, and the recipe is a keeper. So it's been a quiet, alone day that's somehow flown by.

I only had a few things I wanted to accomplish today, and this was one of them. I'm happy now.

I hope you're happy too.

8 comments:

KathyA said...

Well, in spite of your angst, it sounds like you had some really wonderful moments this Christmas. I'm glad! I ignore the ads and the commercial push. I get into the spirit by some magical means. Not all years are this way, but this one certainly was, from the week before Thanksgiving until now. It's been great. Now I rest! :)

Jules said...

Your Christmas sounds just delightful!! I'm so glad you posted, prompting this graffiti......

I worried all day about your toilet paper situation. Yours had to be the most unique FaceBook post this morning (in my world). STOCKPILE GIRL! What's wrong with you?

And yes, feeling very White Bread today......

Leann said...

Commercialism.....baahhhhh humbug. :-)

happyone said...

Sounds like a happy Christmas for you all.
No matter how commercial Christmas gets I still celebrate it as Jesus' birthday. :-)

Mo said...

Reads like a great holiday season this year for you, Em, and Rob.

I hope you enjoy your Kindle as much as I enjoy mine.

The odd thing is in my closest circle of friends I am the only one with the Kindle. The rest of those fools have the Nook.

Of course, I did buy mine as a xmas present to myself last year before the Nook even came out. Finally people won't stop me and ask what is that thing since it seems like a ton of folks got one this year for the holidays.

For the record, I would still buy the Kindle over the Nook.

As for the Boogie Board . . . I just might have to get on that!

And more about me, I am doing a house tour this week on my blog. Please feel free to stop in for a virtual visit.

xoxox

Martha said...

I really like Christmas, but I agree that it's forced on us too early. It seems like the stores have been forcing everything too early over the past few years and it's only getting worse. I was out shopping the week BEFORE Christmas and had to deal with Valentine's Day stuff!

Rick Rockhill said...

I love your gnome, Cheryl, its very cool. I too, think my home looks better decorated for Christmas. It always feels "naked" when I take it all down, it gives me the blues a bit too.

Dirk said...

Sounds like a great Christmas. My wife loves decorating the house. This year we added a real tree to our "tree collection" and we had a tree in every room on the first floor.

Dirk

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