My Bah-Humbug Christmas!

Well, between all the mouse po*p and "musical pherafy", I really didn't have much time to post Christmas stuff. But it was probably just as well 'cause I was just one complaint after another. Are you surprised? Yeah, well, me either.

But, really this was a crappy Christmas. It was one of "those" Christmases. You know the ones. Yeah, where nothing is done when it should be, you're running around like a chicken with it's head cut off yet that can somehow miraculously scream at anything, anyone, and any animal that gets in its path. Yeah, that was me. Up late every night trying to cram stuff in even though when you calculate the hours in your head you know there is no possible way to get everything done. The kind of Christmas three years ago I swore I would never have again.

So, here I go again promising myself again that I will not let this happen next year. A nice, normal organized Christmas can be done by me believe it or not. And I much prefer it. But, to be honest, even when it's organized and things are on time and what-not, the whole hoopla still makes me mad.

I just want Christmas to be about celebrating Christ's birth, spending time with family eating food from treasured recipes, and sharing Jesus's love by sharing our wealth and blessings with others. Not all the over-the-top crap we have to do to "DO" Christmas. Not adults buying other adults crappy gifts they either don't want or could afford to go buy themselves. Not all the pushing, shoving, and selfishness at the stores. Not the hurry, hurry, hurry of the season. Not even Santa. Not family fighting over who gets to see who on which day and for how long. All of that part of Christmas is so meaningless. I absolutely abhor the feeling of relief I have on Christmas Day Night. That "whew! I pulled it off. It's over. I made it through another one." I actually crave for Rhett to tell me good job or thanks for pulling off Christmas. That's how I celebrate the birth of my Saviour? It doesn't even make sense. I ache inside to do things differently. But I don't know how to change things without causing a huge family rift. And I really hate to rock the boat when my grandmother is elderly, yet still very with it.

Anyway, it is over for this year and all can do is learn from this experience and move on. So, I share with ya'll what I've learned this Christmas.

• Do NOT take vacation the last week of November and come home in December. It takes a good week to prepare to leave, a week away, and a week to do laundry and unpack. That's 3 weeks of the season gone right there.
• If you even think about taking care of health problems you've been putting off, July is too late to start. You might as well start in January to be sure you will be done by Christmas.
• If you see a mouse in your house before you leave for the aforementioned vacation, bomb the house with poison when you are gone so that when you get back you are not too scared to be up alone after dark and you won't be cleaning mouse po*p out of your kitchen the Sat. before Christmas.
• Don't bother to spend the whole month of December telling your child the truth about Santa. 'Cause ya'll know her cousins are way smarter than you and will unravel everything you've taught in a couple of hours on Christmas eve. Oh, well. At least we can always say we never lied to her.
• If your child's birthday is in November, do NOT have her party in December. Dumb-da-dumb-dumb!
• When Amazon says "order now and have item tomorrow by noon", um . . . I don't think it means the free super saver shipping esp. since it showed up 10 days later instead of 2.
• If you are asked to bring a dish you've never made before to your in-laws, just go get your recipe off of http://www.allrecipes.com/ If 657 people say the recipe is good, it is. If 5 people say it is, don't chance it.
• And finally . . . whatever you do (if you don't do it already), you should add celebrating the Advent to your Christmas traditions. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just done to turn the focus on the Lord. We had the Advent candles and no wreath and the Jesse Tree symbols and no tree to put them on. And ya' know what? It still worked. BFG looked forward to our advent devotional every night. And Christmas Day morning, the first thing she wanted to do was to do our last devotional and put Baby Jesus in the manger of our nativity. She wanted to do that on her own without one word of asking to see her presents. And, bless her heart, it was cloudy on Christmas eve and she cried because she thought it was her only chance to see the star of Bethlehem and she was gonna miss it. So, maybe, just maybe, through all the chaos, we did something right this Christmas. (Well, does it still count if I spent the majority of each day in December screaming at her to leave me alone 'cause I had to get stuff done? I really hope so.)

Happy Blessed New Year, Ya'll!

Mama Said