Christmas is right around the corner! With about 3 weeks to go, people are gearing
up for the holiday festivities. But for
someone like me, Christmas will be different this year. For me this change in holiday activities is
pretty much the beginning of change in my holiday life for the rest of my life.
This past spring, I became an “empty nester”, so not only
has my day-to-day life has changed, but also my holiday activities changed tremendously.
My daughter and grandchildren are in
their own place so a lot of the special holiday traditions we did when my daughter
was young are now obsolete. I am excited
for them as they make up their own way to celebrate the holidays with each
other. Now the question becomes, “What
am I going to do this Christmas?”
A
Change in Holiday Traditions
It used to be that I would cook huge meals consisting of
pretty much the same food (ham, fried chicken, collards, yams, potato salad,
chocolate cake etc…) every month from November thru January; I no longer have
to do that.
I don’t have to buy a live tree, strap it to my beautiful
clean car, drag it through the front door, set it up in the stand and decorate
it poking myself in neck, chest and back just to decorate it perfectly. I don’t
even have to decorate my condo with lights on the mantle, poinsettias, trinkets
my daughter made in school through the years and miles and miles of garland. I don’t
have to make decisions on what toys and clothes to purchase and how I was going
to purchase them. I don’t have to water that dam tree every day!
No more settling in the evening of Christmas Eve with a
bottle of wine because I know that 50+ presents had to be wrapped before 5 am
in the morning. I don’t have to remember
to bake cookies for Santa and its 2 o’clock in the morning and I have been
drinking wine and wrapping presents all night.
I don’t have to remember at 4:30 in the morning, that I need to get out
of my bed, go into the kitchen and take two bites out of two cookies with a sip
of milk so that my daughter would know that Santa was there. Wine, cookies and milk do not sit well on
your stomach at 4:30 in the morning.
Lastly, I do not have to wake up at 5 am in the morning
only to find that all the presents have already been opened and that wrapping
paper and boxes are all over the place, look to my left to find my child
sitting in the mist of this paper mess playing joyfully with some electronic
gadget smiling and asking me…”Hey mommy, what’s for breakfast?” Again I ask you…”What am I going to do this
Christmas season”?
I’ll tell you what I’m going to do this Christmas season…NOTHING! The grandchildren’s presents will be wrapped
and delivered to their house 3 days before Christmas. I’m going to wake up at whatever time my eyes
open. I may eat breakfast, I may
not. I will enjoy a nicely prepared
steak dinner with whatever fixing’s I choose, and I am going to sit on my warm
cushiony leather sofa with a blanket and a glass of wine watch the Law and Order marathons ALL DAY!
Jingle
bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun Phaedra will have doing
absolutely nothing all day!!!
Peace and blessings,
Phaedra
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