I can't say that I was looking forward to the holidays this year. I cried a lot and was depressed often. I celebrate Christmas with my family and Yule with my friend, and I could have passed the month by without them this year. With Dad gone almost three years now and Grandma gone this past October, the holidays just seemed like more effort than they are worth. but I sucked it up and did my best to gather gifts.
Let me add here though that working retail has helped to derail the holiday spirit. There is nothing more depressing than having to endure two months of Xmas music and the grabby, spoiled actions of my fellow human beings.
But I digress. I did the holidays and am glad in the end that I did.
I celebrated Yule on the 21st with my best friend Kindra and her daughter, Toria. It was an understated affair, consisting mostly of gifts and a trip to the park so Toria could show me how she rides her bike. We ended the day with homemade Ice cream and episodes of Ghost Hunters. It was a good day.
My Mom tries really hard to make the holidays fun. She wants fun decorations up and to do activities. Traditional for us has changed and I will admit that part of that is me, I like to do things different and unusual. For example last year we had two real trees to decorate and my little fake one. One of the live trees was covered entirely in hand-made ornaments. This year we went a different direction and did a table of small decorative trees.
We decorated gingerbread men (mom loves gingerbread men and it is a given that my sister and I will give her many as presents. Her collection is on the verge of outgoing the kitchen where it spends every holiday).
In the end our very untraditional Xmas included sitting around all day in PJs, having tacos for our early meal (my sister works nights and had to be in bed early), and watching old movies on TV (Little Women and Sherlock Holmes, yes, really). And frankly it was the most relaxing Xmas we have ever had.
I made mom some Xmas themed trivets to go along with the other things I bought her. I would have made gingerbread one as well if I had found some gingerbread colored cotton yarn. Maybe next year.
I would love to get the ornament rounder if I ever make another one, but other than that I was very pleased with how they turned out. Mom liked them and put them on the table with the trees. Here's to life not living down to expectations.
