It’s Over!

I have read many, many books on ways to “simplify Christmas”. Most of these books have been read during the eleventh hour of holiday preparation when I am getting ready to make a midnight run to Best Buy or still baking cookies on Christmas Eve in my stretchy yoga pants.

I honestly thought that this year would be different. I envisioned a (non-working) Christmas with me in a stylish holiday caftan entertaining family and friends in an unrushed atmosphere of holiday serenity. Soon after I finished working at NOPL, I had made a “task list” that included all of my holiday duties – the tree to decorate, gifts to purchase and wrap, cards to address, food to buy and prepare, cookies to bake, parties to attend, and “extra” activities that I had always wanted to experience (like snowshoeing at Beaver Lake and a candlelit dinner in Armory Square and a walk to see the big City tree).

Time without work seemed to stretch before me like the Pacific Ocean at Coranado del mar. The calendar was no longer a captor holding me hostage until December 25th. I was FREE and Christmas would be well organized, well planned and enjoyed with little or no stress. After all, wasn’t work the problem? Hadn’t work taken me away from my holiday duties all of those Christmases past??
I am not a person to make excuses. I usually own up to my own inadequacies and I can only say that it is hard to teach an old elf new tricks.

Yes, time was like the ocean but I was still sitting on the beach drinking month old pumpkin Bailey’s as the clock was ticking. Days and, actually weeks went by and I had not purchased a gift or put up a light. Normal, everyday life intruded: trash day, mending, and meeting friends for lunch. I watched 3 of my favorite old movies one snowy afternoon. On a “power shopping day” I spent 2 hours in Barnes and Noble playing with The Nook, drinking peppermint mocha and browsing through self help books without purchasing a gift. I spent an afternoon in Macy’s and bought myself a new long winter coat and my son one pair of socks. Mornings I would go for a walk, make a pot of tea and digest recipes from the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. I had perfected homemade buttermilk salad dressing yet had not baked one cookie.

Of course, ready or not, Christmas must happen and women are the masters of pulling it all together. I have thought that if Christmas were up to men, it would be beer and cheese balls and cards that said “Only 23 days till Superbowl Sunday”. But I have always worked well under pressure, and in a comforting, traditional way, it seemed like my new (non-working) Christmas was Christmas as usual: me rushing around, me with a cold, me with an eye infection, a last minute trip to the doctor and, of course, me better for Christmas just in time to enjoy the day with family and good friends to help celebrate in the most wonderful way.

So this year I will forgo the stylish caftan for my new Fargo hat and scarf (thanks Davey) that will keep me extra warm on my early morning walks.
Anyway, it’s over!!