This time of year is pretty weird with us. Unlike your average
working Jane, I [enter adjective here] chose a profession that is 24/7.
In the first week of October every year, I learn whether I will be working
Christmas or New Year's that year (and whether the rest of Team Logan will be visiting extended family for Christmas or not). It's either one or the other, there
are very few exceptions. Fairness dictates that we alternate but there
are some of us that do have a distinct preference. Since my littlest
are still very little and my going-to-bars/parties days are over, I
really have no use for New Year's Eve other than an excuse to sit in my
basement, drink wine and eat too much. So, I opt to work it as often as
I can. My younger colleagues can go out and party and I can spend
Christmas with my growing family, instead of being completely overcome
with waves of homesickness and loneliness. Lets face
it, Christmas in the psych ward sucks jingling donkey balls; it doesn't matter
which side of the glass you are on.
You'd think I'd be all over the seasonal trappings like, well, me on a Christmas cookie... but you'd be wrong. I have no idea what's wrong with me this year. Unlike people who start in early November (or even earlier, GAH!), I wait until after my Birthday to start. The first week of December usually finds me stomping around absentmindedly in my Crocs in subzero weather trying to hang lights on the house (which is even more fun in Crocs if there is snow on the ground). I'll be hauling out our "new" 7' artificial tree (that we got two years ago) from under the stairs and gleefully start sorting out the Lang syne of decorations that we have.
But not this year.
Perhaps it was the uncharacteristic celebration of my Birthday that's thrown everything off kilter. Maybe it's the piles of laundry and "kibble" that accumulate about the place. I have no idea. I do know that I can't shake the feeling that I'm somehow two weeks behind everyone else.
My neighbours must hate me at this point. Everyone down the street, Christian or non, has a display of twinkling lights on their house. Even the ones next door who more than often have a car parked on their lawn, have lackadaisically thrown a net of lights over the railing and called it festive. I have a grumpy gargoyle, in a dead garden, which in turn is half-buried in snow. FFS, I still have a skeleton tied to the porch (who is also, now half-buried in the aforementioned snow).
We're forgoing many of our usual customs this year--that could be part of it. Usually I make a big deal out of a photo card of the kids to send out, but time and money won on that one this year. I'd bet right now though that most of this stems from tiredness and a lot of the same thing that has caused a plastic femur to be poking out between the railing spokes in Mid-December.
That 7' tree I spoke of earlier? Didn't come down until August... and I'm in no bloody rush to put it back up again. We stopped trying to "get one more night" out of it mid-January. With the preparations for Wyatt's surgery and whatnot, it was abandoned (along with much of our rec room), to the spiders and piles of stuff that we dumped there as we rushed about our lives for the summer. There's only so much "leave the tree alone!" that one person can say in a day as well. With two curious toddlers in the house, visions of broken ornaments and trips to the ER danced in my head.
No.
Instead, I told the kids that we'd focus on their little tree this year. That I can handle. We always have a smaller one in the living room with the handmade ornaments Quinn and I have put together over the years (and the ones he made at daycare and school). Our old one went to fake Christmas tree heaven last year (see "leave the tree alone!), so this year found me hitting Canadian Tire to get a new small one. It proudly graces our living room where we spend most of our time. Q and I have already added to it and I look forward to the little things that we can all work on together for it.
My enjoyment right now comes vicariously through the kids. Quinn delights us daily with the spoils from his Lego Advent Calendar. I'm still at a loss why the Firefighter came with a sausage, but okay, sure. We've also discovered that we're both good at making what he calls "snowflake lanterns". Actually, one of my colleagues gets the credit for these, but after she had taught me (and we decorated the nursing station) I came home and taught him. (Here is a handy how-to.) We were somewhere around the second one each when he turned to me and asked what would happen if he alternated the widths of his cuts back and forth. Having only done thin or thicker strips, I had no idea and admitted that I wasn't sure if it was going to work. He shrugged and gave me the look while telling me that "it doesn't matter if it turns out as expected or not... it's still art."
Ok then...
Once we ran out of blank paper, we used some of his origami paper to make both large ones to hang from the ceiling and a few small ones to hang on the tree. We did this in just under an hour and the twins got up from their nap to a world of wonder. They ooohed and aaaahed over what Zoe calls "the kites" covering the living room ceiling for quite some time. It's the little things...
The stockings got
an overhaul too, in preparation for Santa's arrival. Quinn's ripped
last year, so he got a brand new one and every other one needed a drop
of glue here or there or a touch up of any sparkles. It was fantastic
watching their eyes light up and Zoe's little feet dance as I showed them the results.
I'm sure I'll get there eventually... by the time Christmas Eve rolls around and we watch It's a Wonderful Life (and cry) for the umpteenth time, I'll be in the zone. Maybe I'll snap out of my Seasonal Funk in time to get my Merry on and bake something before hand. Or, maybe not. Things like having to slog fruitlessly through the mall crowds for two hours last night searching for snow pants for my eldest, while my youngest yelled at random passers-by (in between nose wipes) and my middle child pulled everything down that was within reach... really aren't helping to be honest.
Meh. I'll just have to listen to some carols or at least some Zebrahead over and over until I cheer up. Maybe I'll go make myself some grog and find enough happy to go hang those lights and finally take the skeleton down.
Or maybe not.
Or... Maybe I'll just give the damn thing a hat.
You'd think I'd be all over the seasonal trappings like, well, me on a Christmas cookie... but you'd be wrong. I have no idea what's wrong with me this year. Unlike people who start in early November (or even earlier, GAH!), I wait until after my Birthday to start. The first week of December usually finds me stomping around absentmindedly in my Crocs in subzero weather trying to hang lights on the house (which is even more fun in Crocs if there is snow on the ground). I'll be hauling out our "new" 7' artificial tree (that we got two years ago) from under the stairs and gleefully start sorting out the Lang syne of decorations that we have.
But not this year.
Perhaps it was the uncharacteristic celebration of my Birthday that's thrown everything off kilter. Maybe it's the piles of laundry and "kibble" that accumulate about the place. I have no idea. I do know that I can't shake the feeling that I'm somehow two weeks behind everyone else.
My neighbours must hate me at this point. Everyone down the street, Christian or non, has a display of twinkling lights on their house. Even the ones next door who more than often have a car parked on their lawn, have lackadaisically thrown a net of lights over the railing and called it festive. I have a grumpy gargoyle, in a dead garden, which in turn is half-buried in snow. FFS, I still have a skeleton tied to the porch (who is also, now half-buried in the aforementioned snow).
We're forgoing many of our usual customs this year--that could be part of it. Usually I make a big deal out of a photo card of the kids to send out, but time and money won on that one this year. I'd bet right now though that most of this stems from tiredness and a lot of the same thing that has caused a plastic femur to be poking out between the railing spokes in Mid-December.
That 7' tree I spoke of earlier? Didn't come down until August... and I'm in no bloody rush to put it back up again. We stopped trying to "get one more night" out of it mid-January. With the preparations for Wyatt's surgery and whatnot, it was abandoned (along with much of our rec room), to the spiders and piles of stuff that we dumped there as we rushed about our lives for the summer. There's only so much "leave the tree alone!" that one person can say in a day as well. With two curious toddlers in the house, visions of broken ornaments and trips to the ER danced in my head.
No.
Instead, I told the kids that we'd focus on their little tree this year. That I can handle. We always have a smaller one in the living room with the handmade ornaments Quinn and I have put together over the years (and the ones he made at daycare and school). Our old one went to fake Christmas tree heaven last year (see "leave the tree alone!), so this year found me hitting Canadian Tire to get a new small one. It proudly graces our living room where we spend most of our time. Q and I have already added to it and I look forward to the little things that we can all work on together for it.
My enjoyment right now comes vicariously through the kids. Quinn delights us daily with the spoils from his Lego Advent Calendar. I'm still at a loss why the Firefighter came with a sausage, but okay, sure. We've also discovered that we're both good at making what he calls "snowflake lanterns". Actually, one of my colleagues gets the credit for these, but after she had taught me (and we decorated the nursing station) I came home and taught him. (Here is a handy how-to.) We were somewhere around the second one each when he turned to me and asked what would happen if he alternated the widths of his cuts back and forth. Having only done thin or thicker strips, I had no idea and admitted that I wasn't sure if it was going to work. He shrugged and gave me the look while telling me that "it doesn't matter if it turns out as expected or not... it's still art."
Ok then...
Once we ran out of blank paper, we used some of his origami paper to make both large ones to hang from the ceiling and a few small ones to hang on the tree. We did this in just under an hour and the twins got up from their nap to a world of wonder. They ooohed and aaaahed over what Zoe calls "the kites" covering the living room ceiling for quite some time. It's the little things...
 |
| Homemade ornaments on The Kids Tree. The white and red ornament is a smaller version of our "snowflake lanterns". |
I'm sure I'll get there eventually... by the time Christmas Eve rolls around and we watch It's a Wonderful Life (and cry) for the umpteenth time, I'll be in the zone. Maybe I'll snap out of my Seasonal Funk in time to get my Merry on and bake something before hand. Or, maybe not. Things like having to slog fruitlessly through the mall crowds for two hours last night searching for snow pants for my eldest, while my youngest yelled at random passers-by (in between nose wipes) and my middle child pulled everything down that was within reach... really aren't helping to be honest.
Meh. I'll just have to listen to some carols or at least some Zebrahead over and over until I cheer up. Maybe I'll go make myself some grog and find enough happy to go hang those lights and finally take the skeleton down.
Or maybe not.
Or... Maybe I'll just give the damn thing a hat.
I envision twinkly lights on the ribs and something shiny dangling from his... jaw?
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