Bah humbug?

The closer it gets to Christmas, the worse my mood gets.

For some reason, this year this is truer than usual.

Part of it is the enforced cheerfulness. "It's Christmas," people say, "You should be happy. It's the most wonderful time of the year." (Stupid Christmas propaganda, erm, songs.)

A lot of it is all the Christmas ads on television, that keep up the constant drumbeat of, "It's Christmas, spend lots of money" along with the moans from retailers that "People aren't spending enough money, spend more money or we'll go broke."

And then there are the "War Against Christmas" folks who get pissed off if you wish them Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, and who insist that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." Which, if they've read their history, they would know clearly isn't true. But I won't bore you with why this year is a time for celebration, historically speaking. Jesus was born in the spring, if you take the time to read the Bible and it's descriptions of his birth. Never mind, I said I wouldn't belabor this point.

In my family, sure we had presents and dinner with the family and a tree and Christmas cards and all the rest. I was in the church Christmas play when I was five years old...and, oh, what a night that was. It was so foggy out when it was time to go to the church...This church, in fact, which is now a theater...

Well, the porticoes weren't there, then, and the blue paint wasn't there, but otherwise the building looks very much the same. Anyway, it was so foggy that we could barely find the building. When we stopped to pick my grandmother up, my dad parked out on the shoulder by the street rather than going down her long driveway and walked her out to the car. As they got in the car, he made the offhand remark, "Wouldn't it be interesting if it was clear by the time we get out of the program?" Yeah, right, Dad. We all laughed. But, while we were in the basement of the church having the program (which I barely remember), the East Wind had come up and it was cold and clear as a bell. And so, that nearly Christmas night entered the family legend regarding Christmas.

Later on, after my mother got tired of nearly always having to have the family Christmas dinner at our house, we instituted a new tradition: Just the immediate family - my mom and dad and me - would get up on Christmas morning, have breakfast (by that time, we had started doing presents on Christmas Eve) and then go for a long (and by long, I mean all day) drive, and eat Christmas dinner at a restaurant along the way. That usually ended up being Denny's, but that was fine. The family was spending time together. Or, we wouldn't go on as long a drive, we'd eat out anyway, and go to a movie. Which was also fun.

But then my dad died, and we moved away from Southern California, and Christmas wasn't so much fun any more. There was still my mom's birthday, which was on Christmas Eve, and we always did something special for that. But Christmas just wasn't the event it used to be.

And then five years ago, at the beginning of December, my mother died. And now, I start feeling sad around the anniversary of that, and there's no family to do Christmas with (and no money to do it with, either, since I lost my job two years ago, again, just before Christmas), and its just no fun at all.

Because that's what Christmas is about according to how I was raised - family. Not buying increasingly expensive gifts. Not being ideologically religious. Just, spending family time and enjoying each other's company, and doing something fun, and being nice to others...for years after my dad died, the most fun of Christmas was Mom and me being the fattening fairies and spreading calories in the form of Christmas cookies and candy all over the place. Yeah, being nice to others even if everyone else was out there elbowing you out of the way to get that last Christmas bargain before the shops closed on Christmas Eve.

So...I'm sorry for being such a downer so close to Christmas. It's just a hard time of year for me these days. But, could you do me a favor? Try to do something nice for somebody, just once every day until Christmas. Let that car into traffic, even though they wanted until the last minute to merge when their lane ended. Say please and thank you to some poor overworked retail employee (who is very possibly only temporary, making minimum wage, has had ten or twelve people yell at them already since they got out of bed this morning, and is looking at the prospect of having to look for another job as soon as the holiday rush is over). Let the other person have the gift item that you both put your hands on at the same time and is the last of its kind on the shelf. Because, you know, the other thing Christmas is about, besides family, is giving...but giving isn't just overpaying for a gift and putting it in fancy paper that is just going to get ripped off the box and thrown away on Christmas morning.

The best gift you can give, I think, is making someone's day a little more pleasant. And the beautiful thing about that? It doesn't cost a thing besides a little effort and the determination to be a little nicer. It's something you can do every day, all year long.

And that is the gift that keeps on giving.

I'll try to be in a better mood tomorrow. I promise.

Thanksgiving Eve

Busy, busy, busy day.

Out with roommate, waiting for her at her doctor's appointment, Laundromat, library - definitely, library, since it will be closed for two days in a row and I get twitchy when there aren't enough books around to read - and various and sundry other pre-holiday things to do.

Back tomorrow with a Thanksgiving tradition.

And, if you aren't in the United States, tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, the day we get together and eat too much, watch sports (well, some of us - me, not so much), eat more and, incidentally, try to have one day when we give thanks for what we have before we go out and kicks and scratch and brawl to acquire more of what we probably don't need. Again, well, some of us. Others of us spend an extra day in out of the Black Friday idiocy.

Oh, and I have to share this and say that I am thankful for people who care enough to get involved in their communities and do things like the 7-Eleven franchise owners in my neighborhood are doing. The thing the article is about isn't a corporate initiative, but simply individuals who care about getting kids excited about reading. So, when the corporation adopts this (and they might, some of the company executives have already been to visit) literacy initiative, remember that it started in my neighborhood.

Waving goodbye to 2012...

Out of all the year, this is the week I hate the most.

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day has always seemed to me to be a huge waste of time. It's like the world is holding its breath waiting for the new year to begin. Nothing gets accomplished, really. Human nature being what it is, with two holidays (well, four, since Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve have taken on the status of holidays as well) just a week apart, a lot of people spend the week talking about how their Christmas was and looking forward to whatever big New Year's Eve party they are attending.

It has seemed to be even worse than usual this year, so far at least. I imagine part of that has to do with the fact that I've been sick since before Christmas. I started noticing the first symptoms of the Cold from Hell a couple of days before Christmas, and I'm still sick, although today is the first day that I haven't felt absolutely wretched.

Another factor contributing to my feeling about the week is fallout from being sick: I've spent a lot of time in front of the TV because I haven't felt like doing anything else. It seems like that year-in-review thing that they do in the media in the last couple of days of the year has been going on all week long. At least on MSNBC, which is my cable talking heads channel of choice, that's nearly all they've been doing. Today, of course, they've been forced to report some news, with the drama over whether Congress is going to act in time to avoid the economy going all to hell again, but that has barely slowed down the endless procession of year-end commentary. Although, I have to say that I'm watching "The Last Word" right now, and they've been managing to keep things interesting. Too bad the rest haven't been able to keep up.

Now, this isn't to say that I don't think there are things that went on during the year that bear further discussion. It was an election year after all, with all that entails. I especially think the recent statement from one of Mitt Romney's sons that Mitt really didn't want to run for president at all bears further examination and comment. The war on women was no fluke born of election hyperbole; I don't think it has slowed down at all, and we will need to talk more about that. Partly associated with that, the Tea Party is still with us despite the outcome of the election in November, and they aren't going to go without a fight. We'll be talking about that whole phenomenon further, I'm sure. And then there's gun control. It was the subject no one wanted to talk about during the election campaigns, but because of recent events in Connecticut and in upstate New York most notably among other events, it has become clear that we, as a nation, are going to have to tackle that issue, and soon.

But, my big year-in-review to come before the new year will be my review of the books I read this year. Since Sunday is Music Sunday and Monday is Movie Monday and Tuesday is 2013, I suspect that I'll do that tomorrow unless something happens between now and then that needs attention.

Now, if somebody would do a big show with notable people talking about the best books they're read this year, the best movies they've seen, and the best music they've listened to...I would definintely watch that.

It's the holidays, and I'm feeling just a little cranky, or, are the holidays over yet?

Apparently, someone in the neighborhood thinks tonight is New Year's Eve, judging by the noise they were just making outside. They got the timing just about right; it's 11:58 p.m. local time as I write this, but they're off by a day.

Although, actually, I'd be just as happy if this was New Year's Eve. I'm ready for a new year to start. Of course, because New Year's Day is on a Sunday this year, they're dragging the whole thing out an extra day. Personally, I think it is lame to have the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl Game on Monday when the first is on Sunday, but then I guess I don't get a vote.

You may have gotten the impression, from the preceding two paragraphs, that I'm feeling a little cranky around the whole New Year's thing. That impression would be correct. Some of the crankiness has to do with just wanting 2011 to be over with, but most of it has to do with the fact that I hate the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day with a a passion the temperature of molten rock.

I might have written about this issue here before, but just in case I haven't, the short version is this: The week between Christmas and the end of the year always seems like a week of wasted days, with one holiday just over and the other one hovering just over the horizon, waiting to happen. Also, to be completely frank, it's just an arbitrary date. A good excuse to have a party, some would say. Me? Not so much. We need a good party in, say, August, where there are no holidays. It's warmer then. A much better time for a party, in my opinion.

Let me be clear. I know the reasons why we in the Western World celebrate New Year's when we do. I know no one is going to change the date we celebrate the New Year. Except when in falls on a Sunday, and then only by one day. But two holidays seven days apart is just too much for me. It's bad enough that Halloween and Thanksgiving fall roughly a month apart, with Christmas following about a month after Thanksgiving.

On the other hand, if Samoa could jump the International Date Line, as it did this year, and lose December 30 altogether, and if my cousin's family could celebrate her birthday, which falls on Christmas Day, on the Fourth of July instead, couldn't we just move New Year's Day a little farther away from Christmas? Please?

Merry, Happy, Joyful, Wonderful, Excellent Holidays...

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The presents are open, dinner is in the oven, the (visitng) dog keeps coming by for tummy rubs, and I got to sleep in until 10:30 this morning. The latter is a good thing, since all of us adults in the house were up until 4 in the morning playing cards.

I hope all of your holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, have been and continue to be safe and jolly and full of love and laughter.