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Keep Christmas with you (or at least some cookies)

I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas. If yours was anything like mine, you may still be in some sort of a food coma. I started eating a lot of cookies Christmas Eve and since then have stopped eating (not just cookies) only when I was at church, in the car, or sleeping. A lot of my pants are too big anyway...

Anyway, now that the secular season is winding down, I wanted to share some observations:

  • Even though I have been listening to Christmas songs since the 19th of November (Light-Up Night is the "official" start of the season in the Burgh), I am not ready for the radio stations to stop playing the jolly tunes. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Christmas songs on two stations, but I am guessing that is for us Church folk, who are still in the Christmas season. 
  • I like to think that I have finally accepted that no matter how many times I ask my MIL not to buy Jordan a lot of gifts and/or spend a lot of money on her for Christmas (and birthday, for that matter), as long as she can financially do it, she will do just that.
  • At the same time, I also am hopeful that beyond this year, I will be okay with people who spend way more on me than I on them. I am not saying it is easy or that I don't feel a little bad, but I have my priorities and know what I can and cannot do (or at least what I should and should not do).
  • I hate to think that this could be the last year that Jordan believes in the fat guy in the red suit. But I know that time is running out. Almost as frightening? When that happens, that probably means Santa Facie will have to start wrapping gifts. Crap.
  • Almost as depressing? The fact that I will most likely never have a photo of my kid with Santa. This is not just Jordan's eighth Christmas, but her eighth Christmas of standing at least two feet from the guy. At least this year she worked up the courage to say hi from a short distance!
  • I am still bummed that Westinghouse (or what was formerly Westinghouse, anyway) did not put up its Christmas tree light display near the Parkway East Churchill exit. In another post, I said seeing that decoration brings a tear to my eye. Every. Single. Year. Well, Virginia, not this year, sadly.
  • Similarly, for the past 20 years, maybe more, I find myself missing the Sesame Street Christmas special that had Big Bird questioning Santa's existence. I still remember some of the words to "Keep Christmas with You" and I can picture someone ice skating to "Feliz Navidad" as well as an icicle on Big Bird's beak. Anyone else?
Well, it has been almost an hour since I have eaten something, so I better run. Or eat, anyway.

Merry Christmas some more!
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