This year Xmas has snuck up on me. Hard to believe since we have been subjected to the marketing since Halloween. But as the years pass you come to the conclusion that EVERY year will seem like companies start Xmas extra early and it will get more and more commercial, as we are the masses that cry out for bigger and better.
So the Xmas spirit has not paid his visit to my door, my hallway bare and the ghost of Halloween hanging in my kitchen window..remains that, a Halloween ghost. Usually I would put a shiny silver piece of garland around his head and call him the ghost of Christmas present. This year has passed rather silently and I hope it continues…my heart just isn’t in it this time around.
But I understand that I must do my best to squash the scrooge and bring in Snoopy and his Christmas. Oh Clarence! Where are you when I need you?
So tonight I chose to recall a memorable Xmas, one of the very best…eleven years ago. I don’t remember feeling as ill as I did that year…a very nasty flu to spoil the festivities a week before Christmas. That was the year I first read Pride & Prejudice, a gift given by a long lost Quebec teacher. I had nothing else to do but read about the total anguish of Ms. Bennett’s and Mr. Darcy’s lack of love life. All its missing is just a bit of smut. My feminine side loved the idea of an equal, perhaps a little “fight” to the relationship, and I hoped the hero’s would win. My masculine side said, “61 chapters of wanton temptation and then…nothing”. Still, it is truly a cherished and loved book.
I ended up coming out of my sick cave for a gathering at my family home that year. During the evening, without realizing what I did, I drank out of my fathers glass. And yes him and I woke on Christmas morning, dragged our sorry butts downstairs and curled up on the couch. We opened the gifts, that at the time couldn't faze me out of the constant headache destroying my brain. Overall the whole family was less than excited at the thought of dressing up and heading out for our annual “fit the house people mold” evening of high dress and an insanely expensive dinner.
The tension was high that morning, and no one felt that Christmas spirit flowing in the air. Until…and I can’t remember which one of us said it first, “this Christmas really sucks..”. We stopped and looked around, nobody but ourselves to impress, a nice warm house and a beautiful 8 foot tree. We tore off our shiny blouses and kilts, and happily sank back into our pj’s. Food was scare but we found an oriental restaurant that was open.
The rest of the evening passed beautifully, our cartons of Chinese food littering my mom’s beautiful living room and our bellies full, falling asleep in front of the glowing tree. At that moment Christmas had become the holiday it was meant to be.
So when the crazy mall drivers snap that last nerve, or when your missing that butterfly feeling of the holidays…I remember what it felt like that one year…a most perfect celebration.
