Christmas: Part 1

by Jenn - 11:02 AM

I tend to be a little forgetful. I forget people's names all the time (but not what they're wearing -- it's a gift), so I usually will say it a thousand times in conversation to try and make it stick. Not that it matters, but last week at a casino with my brothers and sisters in law, I managed to remember Jacob the bartender without struggle. And still remember that name a week later. Weird. Anyway, I also tend to forget how awesome it is to wake up on Saturday morning and having nothing to do but demolish a pot of coffee.

I definitely like Saturdays that have big full plans within their itineraries, but Saturdays with not a single agenda note? Freakin' gold, guys. It's an Easter basket filled with just the black jelly-beans.

Whoops, wrong holiday.

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Last week we did Christmas Round 1. It started with a trip to the casino because nothing says Christmas like wondering where all of your money went. Well actually, it went to Jacob the bartender.

Saturday a week ago was not the kind of Saturday that requires only a pot of coffee. It was a Saturday exploding from the beginning with stuff. Things to do, food to eat, drinks to consume, presents to wrap, unwrap, and a few that still needed to be shopped for.

But then, somewhere around 2 o'clock, it all came together.

Last year, I wrote this about how I was struggling to recapture some sense of the old-timey Christmas spirit. Christmas is cool when you're a kid. Well, more than cool. It consumes the entirety of December in this really magical way that is just really overwhelming, but like, the good kind. In adulthood, I've been disappointed that I just can't seem to muster up those feelings anymore. I think that last year, I finally gave up the ghost. I admitted defeat and moved on.

In turn, I think that has created this really positive effect, to which this Christmas ROCKS once again. I mean, I still don't feel it -- not the way I did or wanted to -- but maybe because the expectation has officially gone away, there is just enjoyment. I'm not trying to get entirely wrapped up in the magic of Christmas, I'm just living and liking my twinkle lights and the cookies and the accoutrement of it all, without hoping that it's going to turn into this blizzard of warm cuddly Christmas feelings.

It just is. And it's enough, because it's good.

There's something really good about just hanging out with these dorks and not expecting any feelings other than the same joy I get when we spend time together in May or August. Christmas really is a gift -- a minute for the whole world to stop turning on its regular axis and suggests, you know what, let's just hang out with our families.

This time last year, I really just wanted December to feel like 1996 all over again.

This year, I just wanted December to feel like this is kind of cool.