(no subject)
Can we talk about Christmas? Okay. Here goes:
Every year I barf along with everyone else when Christmas cards, santa hats, and christmas-themed marshmallow peeps appear on shelves in early October. Who feels like seeing plastic christmas trees before Linus even makes his annual speech about the Great Pumpkin?
But this year is sort of different. I am already in full Christmas mode, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. I even got excited when I discovered that one of the radio stations down in San Diego was playing Christmas carols all weekend. Normally I would not be ready to think about this stuff until a week or so after I finish up the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers.
I guess I was thrust into the spirit because I had to get my brother's Christmas package ready for Iraq last week. It takes a real long time for the mail to get to the troops during the holidays so you have to plan way ahead. I was also put in the spirit after seeing Elf two weekends ago with Dave and his sister. I know it might look stupid, but it really made me laugh and it's choc full of X-Mas Cheer.
Anyway, I think it's good to get an early start. Christmas always seems to show up so quickly that it's almost surreal every year when it's the big day and i'm watching mom open her stocking goodies and I'm thinking "this is christmas. today is christmas. it doesn't feel any different, but it seems like it should."
Plus last year I spent Christmas morning alone in my apartment, which was total shit. Christmas just isn't the same when you don't have to act excited about some ugly turtleneck or horrible cd. And it isn't the same when there's no one there to share in your excitement when there are surprises that you didn't think you were getting, like the 2003 hamster calendar.
Any person, plant, animal or mineral who has seen even one tv Christmas special can tell you that Christmas isn't about gifts. After spending Christmas morning alone I can tell you it's about people. It's about Dad's jubilation over his new power tool quickly melting into the most unholy of swears as he can't figure out the directions. It's about mom making way too many cookies but then being surprised and irritated when I don't have room for actual dinner. It's about me and jesse laughing at all the funny things that that perennial king of bastards, Mr. Potter, says to George Bailey. I like that my family has put up the same old plastic Christmas tree since I was little (it's so old it even drops needles now just like a real tree), with the same Elmer's glue and glitter-caked ornaments David and i made in Sunday school and elementary school. Instead of light sets that plug into each other's ends, the McLaughlin Christmas lights have plugs on one end only so that there is a dangerous octopus of plugs at the center of the tree and all light strands tangle outwards from it.
There are a thousand things that make Christmas what it is, so this year I'm going to try and appreciate them all. I can't wait to fight holiday chaos at LAX and O'Hare and take the two hour bus ride home from Chicago to see my parents. I was hoping so much that David and I could finally have Christmas together after too many years of him being elsewhere due to the army. But we'll just have to send him lots of emails.
As for 2010 Verdugo Boulevard, let the holiday extravaganza begin. I already bought a little fake Christmas tree from Big Lots and I've ordered a dvd copy of It's a Wonderful Life. I'm going to start practicing my spritz cookies and I'm going to get a head start on this year's Christmas cards.
By now you want to smack me in the face. "Amanda what emotional void are you trying to fill with all this seasonal cheer?" I don't know, but let's just say that I've turned to Christmas cheer instead of Oxy contin.
Every year I barf along with everyone else when Christmas cards, santa hats, and christmas-themed marshmallow peeps appear on shelves in early October. Who feels like seeing plastic christmas trees before Linus even makes his annual speech about the Great Pumpkin?
But this year is sort of different. I am already in full Christmas mode, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. I even got excited when I discovered that one of the radio stations down in San Diego was playing Christmas carols all weekend. Normally I would not be ready to think about this stuff until a week or so after I finish up the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers.
I guess I was thrust into the spirit because I had to get my brother's Christmas package ready for Iraq last week. It takes a real long time for the mail to get to the troops during the holidays so you have to plan way ahead. I was also put in the spirit after seeing Elf two weekends ago with Dave and his sister. I know it might look stupid, but it really made me laugh and it's choc full of X-Mas Cheer.
Anyway, I think it's good to get an early start. Christmas always seems to show up so quickly that it's almost surreal every year when it's the big day and i'm watching mom open her stocking goodies and I'm thinking "this is christmas. today is christmas. it doesn't feel any different, but it seems like it should."
Plus last year I spent Christmas morning alone in my apartment, which was total shit. Christmas just isn't the same when you don't have to act excited about some ugly turtleneck or horrible cd. And it isn't the same when there's no one there to share in your excitement when there are surprises that you didn't think you were getting, like the 2003 hamster calendar.
Any person, plant, animal or mineral who has seen even one tv Christmas special can tell you that Christmas isn't about gifts. After spending Christmas morning alone I can tell you it's about people. It's about Dad's jubilation over his new power tool quickly melting into the most unholy of swears as he can't figure out the directions. It's about mom making way too many cookies but then being surprised and irritated when I don't have room for actual dinner. It's about me and jesse laughing at all the funny things that that perennial king of bastards, Mr. Potter, says to George Bailey. I like that my family has put up the same old plastic Christmas tree since I was little (it's so old it even drops needles now just like a real tree), with the same Elmer's glue and glitter-caked ornaments David and i made in Sunday school and elementary school. Instead of light sets that plug into each other's ends, the McLaughlin Christmas lights have plugs on one end only so that there is a dangerous octopus of plugs at the center of the tree and all light strands tangle outwards from it.
There are a thousand things that make Christmas what it is, so this year I'm going to try and appreciate them all. I can't wait to fight holiday chaos at LAX and O'Hare and take the two hour bus ride home from Chicago to see my parents. I was hoping so much that David and I could finally have Christmas together after too many years of him being elsewhere due to the army. But we'll just have to send him lots of emails.
As for 2010 Verdugo Boulevard, let the holiday extravaganza begin. I already bought a little fake Christmas tree from Big Lots and I've ordered a dvd copy of It's a Wonderful Life. I'm going to start practicing my spritz cookies and I'm going to get a head start on this year's Christmas cards.
By now you want to smack me in the face. "Amanda what emotional void are you trying to fill with all this seasonal cheer?" I don't know, but let's just say that I've turned to Christmas cheer instead of Oxy contin.