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December 23, 2004
I hope somebody got me crackers cause I got a Christmas crab
Last week I was filled with joyous holiday feelings and inclinations and this week they have all gone the way of the yuletide dodo. In a misguided effort to not get blindsided at the last minute, I bought most of the Bean's Christmas presents at the end of November. We put up our tree the first weekend of December, so now we've been looking at the mofo for what feels like an eternity. Granted, a sparkly, glittery eternity but still.
At work we adopted a family from a local school and bought a bunch of presents from their wish list. After wrapping them up and sending my friend P. to the school to drop them off, we were all feeling pretty jolly. That is until P. came back from the school to report that of the thirteen families who had signed up for the program, only four families received any gifts. So. Thanks largely to the efforts of our resident elf "Tink", technology workers were united, vice presidents tapped, bleeding hearts bled, etc. etc. and darned if we didn't raise almost two grand to get the rest of the families their presents in record time.
As cool as it was to be able to do that for the kids, I seriously felt that by the end of it, my holiday spirit had run out the office door, taken the elevator to the lobby, trickled past Starbucks and filled the city gutters in tarnished rivlets. I tried really hard not to overspend on the Bean and yet still feel like we're giving him ten billion plastic gee-gaws and a stack of whomajiggins that he will a. break b. lose c. not even notice. Sometimes I hate having a kid because I can't bear knowing what having a kid means, and knowing how screwed over so many of them get just by being born.
What to do, what to do. At the very least, I made my husband promise that every year we would spend as much money on other families or charities as we did on our own kid, and that somehow we would incorporate this into our own fledgling family holiday ritual. The concept of a "ritual" is a funny thing, I think so many people end up doing something they don't enjoy year after year just because it's what they always do. My friend says she doesn't decorate because she finds the idea of putting the same stuff up and then taking it down every year depressing. I dunno, I think there is something sweet about it. And frankly, I'll take what sweet I can get.
We non-religious types need to come up with something that is not commercial to celebrate the holiday season. My vote would be for a really festive, eggnog-fueled Boggle marathon, maybe with mistletoe and rowdy, off-key singing. We'd have a fire and all the babies would stay up late but not be grumpy, then everybody would sleep in the next morning. Who's with me?
The Bean says Mama just keep it real.
Posted by Max at December 23, 2004 12:41 AM