scroogey mcgrincherson

one way in which i suck is that i hate decorating the family house for christmas.

hate. it.

don't get me wrong - i love christmas, i love seeing people's decorated houses, i love listening to new age christmas music (wait... really?), i love singing, i love the anticipation, the making of cookies, the drinking of the only food item* which causes more polarized responses than starbucks' green tea latte... but i hate decorating my family's house for christmas.

mostly i have a lot of bitterness wrapped up in decorating this house by myself 2 days before christmas so that everyone else can feel christmassy and i just feel like the decorator.

there were several years when i got home literally on the 23rd, and no one had decorated because everyone was too busy, but since i was there, i could decorate for the family.

there were several more years where everyone came down with bronchitis around the 18th and when i came home around the 22nd, no one had decorated, but since i was there, i could decorate for the family.

we've been in this house for 10 years. i've lived in this house full-time since the end of july, or 4.5 months out of those 10 years.

last year, my sister decorated the house before i came home for christmas.

i've done it by myself for about 6 of the past 10 years (including this year).

2 of those years we had no decorations, not because everyone else was sick or too busy, or got around to decorating more than 4 days before christmas, but because i was flat-on-my-back sick with the flu one year, and in and out of the emergency room with a 5 day migraine for the other.

out of those other 6 years, i've grown to hate and resent decorating the house for christmas. it was different when i lived on my own and i decorated my tiny christmas tree, but that was because it was mine, and i could decorate it on my own time because i wanted to decorate for christmas.

i think the difference is i grew to resent being the one whose priorities, limited time at home, and health was sacrficed so that everyone who wanted christmas decorations but didn't want the hassle of doing it themselves could have the decorations.

today, my sister and i hung christmas lights on the house. she was too sick to get up on the ladder, but not too sick to tell me that any idea i had wasn't a good one, and basically steamrolled every opinion i had.

today, we hung christmas lights, and now i'm in a pissy mood.

*click on that link and you'll learn that the "name is a concatenation of
egg and nog" much like mankind is a combination of mank and ind which doesn't make sense, but neither does mankind.


jay are Monday, December 11, 2006 6:40:00 pm  

don't you love the holidays! I think it isn't uncommon for this time of year to be such a mix of good feelings and old resentments. Depression. Frustration...What an annoying situation for you, tho. I can see why you'd feel resentful---it seems it's so many times the person who cares the most who does most of the work while everyone gets to benefit. Kinda makes ya steam sometimes.

Anonymous Tuesday, December 12, 2006 11:54:00 pm  

you may detest christmas decorating, but you single-handedly created one of the most festive seasonal ambiences ever, at least in my book.

on st. charles, you put on the lit gas stove a pot of cinnamon, spices, and other mystical ingredients that merged in a rich, heady incense that insinuated its way into every pore of that old house. the air smelled golden and redolent of home, like childhood; like nostalgia and anticipation; like a medieval sanctuary and a candyshop; in short, like christmas.

that scent hit me, and i was instantly immersed in the spirit -- and far more fully than any garland or trees strewn with white lights could ever achieve.

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