December is a busy month for everyone and way too much stress to clean, decorate, bake, shop, and wrap. Not to mention all those parties and family get togethers for many of you.
I decided not to put myself through any of that this year, the stress I mean so there is no hustle bustle here and if something isn’t done then I refuse to get worked up about it. We have all the Christmas presents for the kids, now they just need to be wrapped.
My decorations consist of my little fake tree which I didn’t even take apart last year because of emotional stress. I just threw the whole thing in a bag and stuck it downstairs so all I had to do was clear off a space to set it up, no mess no problem, decorating is done.
We will have one get together on Christmas Eve with the kids to exchange presents and since it will be somewhere else I will not be cleaning from top to bottom. Bill is going to provide the baked ham, potato salad and baked beans so not a lot of cooking.
If I’m lucky my DIL will bring Ethan for his presents, so far I’ve seen him 3 times since she brought him back here.
We will have leftovers for Christmas Day with a bottle of wine and it will just be the two of us since everyone will be having dinner with the other in-laws. If it’s not horribly cold we may bundle up and take a trike ride through town with our Santa hats, before the wine of course.
If it weren’t for current events what would people have to talk about other than the weather, children, grandkids and gossiping about other people and even then there is only so much one can say. We know pretty much everything there is to know about our family and our mate and we’ve probably heard the same stories over and over and even told our stories over and over. There’s really only so much any one person can say before it all becomes a repeat. That’s why I always hated family reunions unless they were every 10 years because then I’d have new events to talk about instead of rehashing all the old stuff.
I’m also not good with reruns or watching a movie over and over unless I haven’t seen it for 10 years. Some people live to talk and are never without words. When I was young we talked about our current boyfriend, clothes, makeup, sex, school and our dreams of the future now we talk about all the dorks we dated and married, all the mistakes we made, dreams that never became realities, children and grandchildren and all of our sickness and illnesses. I’ve never been a great conversationalist because I was really never good at chit chat, but I was usually a good listener and often encouraged the other person to talk so I didn’t have to.
I also prefer being the visitor instead of the visitee, yes I know that’s not a word. I like visiting for a half hour or so catching up on the kids’ news and watching the grandkids play and mess up their house and then leaving when I want. I don’t mind visitors, but I never know how to entertain them or what to say to them so I usually happily leave it all up to Bill to entertain and just sit back and listen, usually if they stay longer than an hour then I’m ready to pull my hair out. I’m getting really cranky in my old age apparently, but I can only be pleasant for so long then I need quiet. For the longest I’ve blamed everything on menopause now I need to find another excuse.
We’re going for a nice peaceful, cold ride with no chit chat so I’ll wish a nice Sunday for you all.
Nate/Natalie/Alita/Teagan/Pappy/Nana
I love Ethan’s face in the photo below, he hates the camera just like his Nana, but at least we got one of him on the trike because he wasn’t here when we took the one above. Look at that face it cracked me up.
