Ah, yes, Christmas is coming.
This has been the strangest Christmas season ever for me. I’ve just spent the last 6 weeks immersed in a commercial renovation for our karate school. When I wasn’t working there, I’ve spent my “free” time either sleeping or working for Greater Georgia Printers.
Yesterday was my first real day of leisure since early November—a brief hiatus in a now very busy Christmas schedule.
There’s been many a year when this wouldn’t be a problem and even would have been a major blessing because such activity helps to remove me from the Christmas scene and all its ramifications. I’ve spent so many Christmases in the past mired in depression (a result of growing up in an alcoholic home) that this year’s activity has really brought home how my life has changed.
It all started with a retail job. I took a minimum wage Christmas position at the Briar Patch in the mall back in the late 80’s. After I became manager some short months later, I knew that I had to work on my selling skills and overcame my reluctance to approach and/or speak to customers. Tied in with this is the fact that Christmas is the life blood of such a store. I found myself immersed in Christmas year round, planning, ordering, storing, displaying—well, it just never stopped.
And then at Christmas, for weeks I listened to Christmas music, sold Christmas items, and generally had to act like I liked it! Wow!
Soon I found that Christmas was not only tolerable but could also be fun. Once I moved to Crawford, we started a foreign (to me) tradition of having an annual Christmas party for our karate school. I found myself decorating the house on Thanksgiving to be ready for the party. I started having my family come for Christmas dinner—a new tradition to replace our family’s problem years. I found out what much of the rest of us already know—Christmas isn’t so bad!
And then this year. I’ve had no time for planning the Christmas party; my new house is too small and way to far out for a party; I have no neighbors to impress with Christmas decorations; I, in fact, still have paint cans and a messy porch as an entryway; and we don’t even have a dining room this year to have Christmas dinner in.
So I’ve worked instead. But we did have a Christmas party this year—at the new facility in town amidst the construction debris. My decorations were minimal but everyone was surprised and pleased that I managed that much.
We didn’t decide until the first week in December that we were going to have Christmas dinner here. Now I’ve got quite a few folks coming next week. I’ll have to move the living room furniture onto the back porch and set up folding tables in my living room but it’s going to happen.
I haven’t decorated yet. I haven’t cleaned yet. I haven’t even done all my Christmas shopping/gift prep yet. But there’s snow on the ground, a fire in the fireplace, and Christmas is coming. What a good feeling!