Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The reasons why I don't like the Holidays

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When I mentioned a few weeks ago & that I don't care for the Holidays in the middle of a Friday Favorites post - it drew everyone's attention.


It's not that I don't like the holidays, I just don't care for PARTS of them :) 

Let me try & explain... & I'll even go one step further & break it out per holiday.

I have my valid reasons apparently.

Thanksgiving

1.  Food Addict's Nightmare.  If you have issues with food & over eating, then this day is the WORST!  I mean, it's a day meant to eat till you bust and/or so miserable, that all you want to do is roll onto a couch & stay there... until the leftovers are brought back out.  Not good for someone like me who is learning portion control & eating healthy.  All the cheesy casseroles & pies everywhere?  Geez... its a nightmare.




2.  All the Dead Turkeys.  I am a vegetarian.  I am an animal lover.  I get people eat meat every day, but something about seeing all these piles of frozen turkey's laying in every aisle of the grocery - it just gags me.  & I want to find every turkey farm & set them all free. 



3.  Too many places to go.  This is going to be one of those things where I know this is REALLY a blessing, but it somehow backfires.  We have lots of family & friends we love & its hard to be at many places at once.  For years, Ricky & I actually would go separate ways on Thanksgiving - he'd go to his family - I'd go to mine.  We'd say, 'see you tonight' bringing home left over plates from each other's families.  & if we did try to make all the visits, let's revisit #1 - all the food!!!  All the eating... oh gosh.  You don't want to hurt someone's feeling by not eating when they cooked literally 12 hours....

Now we have family closer with our grandkids down in Nashville, that means some years, we would be out of state during Thanksgiving.  It's just hard to make everyone happy & every year, someone ends up getting their feelings hurt. I hate that.  So much.



4.  All the cooking!  Let's back up to that comment in #3 - over 12 hours of cooking.  Oh heck no.  I know some people love it & have traditions with it.  All I see is all the dirty pans that need to be cleaned.  This is a whole day event here.  All the ingredients needed.  All the timing of which dish that goes in the oven & which ones need to set & warm up & not set & warm up. My brain doesn't deal well with this all.



5.  Shopping Guilt. This is a new one - but now, stores are open on Thanksgiving & people try to shame you & put up posts that say you should be ashamed if you shop on Thanksgiving - its shoppers like that that make stores open & pull people away from their families.  No - its corporate America that makes those decisions.  Hobby Lobby does just fine not opening... corporations can make that call for Thanksgiving.  I want to shop because sorry, I want the deal.  I do feel bad some people that do enjoy Thanksgiving have to leave their celebration to go to work... I get it... but don't guilt others who want to save a little bit of money.




Christmas

1. All the Decorations!  Its not that I mind our decorations - I actually love when they go up. It makes my house so festive & cozy with all the Disney Christmas everywhere.... but it's the taking down. It's so depressing.  & a lot of work.... & honestly, every year I feel like I just took it down when its time to pull it out again.



2.  Putting up the Christmas Tree Fight.  Every year. Never fails. I've said before the hubs & I will get divorced over nothing - except the Christmas tree.  It has become better since pre-lit trees are a thing & I've pretty much given him a job of bringing up everything from the basement & leaving until its all done.  Don't look at me. Don't touch anything. Just walk away slowly.



3.  All the gifts!!!!! .... again - the blessing thing.  We have a lot of friends & family in our lives.  Yes - its a blessing.  But we want people to know we care so we buy lots of gifts.  We really love buying for people actually - but I can't begin to tell you how many gifts we buy for everyone.  HUNDREDSSSSSSS people... & it adds up so much.  I have an app that keeps track of the people we buy for, the gifts we get, & the amount we spend.  Now, remember, we have no small children at home celebrating Christmas with us on Christmas morning.... but our bank accounts are down THOUSANDSSSSSS of dollars at the end of Christmas.  Like, we could buy a very nice used car every year for what we spend on Christmas.

We have to cut back. We just have to.  We can't keep it up. We'd actually like to retire one day & not think when we're out on the streets, "well, they liked that sweater we got them in 2010"...

Someone once told me - ask the person what you got them last year for Christmas & see if they remember... most people don't.  That shows how much gifts really matter.  I get that. I do. 




4. All the wrapping!  All those gifts?  Who wraps every one of them?  Me.  Every.One.Of.Them. .... all the boxes. All the paper. All the ribbons.  I mean, you can't have an ugly package.  I think I make 20 trips to Hobby Lobby for fancy ribbon every year.  & don't even ask me how many rolls of tape I end up buying in one Christmas season.




5.  All the shopping.  I love to shop -Ricky loves to shop.  But when you have to shop for people & on a dead line - the pressure builds up.  It becomes not fun, but a mission.  We usually start out of the house when the sun rises (sometimes before) & get back home at the end of the night with a load of packages.
*Refer back to #4 & #3



6.  Men.  Sorry guys - but y'alls are the hardest people in the world to buy for.  My husband, my dad, my brother, friends, coworkers. If you are a man, you are hard to buy for.



7.  No Santa Surprises.  It's easier as we've gotten older, but Christmas has always been hard for me as someone who never had children of my own.  I mean, its about seeing the magic of Christmas through their eyes.  & when you have no small eyes to see it through, it just bites.  I mean, I look stupid standing in line with my dogs to get a picture with Santa (though I've asked Ricky to let me do it)... We never had the wake up early to see what Santa left in our home.  That's always tough.

I take yearly pictures of my dog in front of the tree instead of kids


.... hey, I get it ... there are some amazing things I love about Christmas

- Obviously #1 - the birth of Jesus. I love church service at Christmas more then anything.  The Christmas story always hits me right in the heart.  & if there is a nativity scene anywhere, I'm stopping & looking.  It really is my favorite time of year when it comes to church.

- Spending time with friends & family - we usually make it work better at Christmas then Thanksgiving - we spread it out all through December to make it work - & that's nice.

- Christmas songs. I will sing them all season long & never tire of them. I actually have Casting Crowns & Josh Groban already in my car!

- Christmas TV shows & movies - especially the old ones. I can always sit with a cup of hot chocolate & watch Rudolph & Frosty - no matter how old I am.

- Christmas lights. I want houses all year long to light up for the drive home.  With it getting dark early, all the extra lights makes it so much easier to take.

- Day off work!  Holla!

I know I sound like the Grinch & Scrooge all wrapped up in one... but this is just all truth.

I always say to Ricky, if we didn't have to buy one gift but just spent time with friends & family, playing games, making cookies, reading the Christmas story together - that's all I would love to do more then anything....

Take the pressure away....

Maybe this will be the year.....

23 comments:

  1. I agree with the too many places to go - we basically agree the year before who we are doing the holidays with for the next year!! xo, Biana -BlovedBoston

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  2. I can certainly relate to the cooking for 12 hours and to the decorating/undecorating. If it weren't for DD (who loves the tradition of us getting up at the crack of dawn to cook), I'd skip the big honking feast ... and if it weren't for the grands (who look forward to seeing our tree and Christmas decorations), I'd skip the whole decorating thing for sure! So you aren't alone in all of your issues with the holidays. ;-)

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  3. I hear you on so many of these! My dad and I always loved going out shopping on Black Friday at like 3 in the morning - but now they've totally ruined it by opening the stores on Thanksgiving day. I refuse to go out because I feel so terrible that they've made their employees work on a holiday... for what reason? Everyone still came out and shopped when they opened on Friday morning! Rant over... ;)

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  4. I can relate to so much! Brandon and I go to my family's Thanksgiving lunch one year and then his the next. The year that we don't go to that family's lunch event, we still visit them that evening, but it is usually just us. It's the only way to make it fair! And we only buy gifts for our parents and all the kids now. We have drastically cut down on what we spend on our parents and try not to go overboard on all the kiddos, especially ours. ;) But it still gets expensive! All my mom wants is for us to come over on any morning close to Christmas and have "Christmas morning" with her and my dad. Breakfast, gifts, playing games, and the kids. We tried to do it last year but Brandon's broken leg and an emergency in my SIL's fam changed plans. We are definitely doing it this year though! It's really all she wants, but I am excited about it, too.

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  5. Also, I was going to suggest that one of the best gifts my kiddos have ever gotten is a membership (to our local children's museum and to the zoo.) We also have a membership to the aquarium. I know your grandkids are in Nashville with tons of stuff like that. That would be an awesome gift that wouldn't break the bank, especially if you are giving it to all of them!

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  6. Your last paragraph - if we didn't have to buy one gift but just spent time with friends & family, playing games, making cookies, reading the Christmas story together - that's all I would love to do more then anything....

    is why I love Thanksgiving over Christmas.

    I don't support stores being open on Thanksgiving though.

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  7. Thanksgiving is going to be real different this year with mom and my brother both gone. In fact, hubby and I are going to be out of state and we'll just go out to eat. His mom and dad will be there too. So the 4 of us will probably do dinner out together. I'm really kinda glad, because I'm not sure I'm ready to do it here without mom and Larry.

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  8. You have very valid reasons!!!! It is a very stressful time of the year for me although deep down I still love it. I do not shop on Thanksgiving weekend, never have. Your list of thing you love at Christmas is great, I enjoy those things too.

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  9. I don't really like the food on Thanksgiving and my Aunt does all the cooking, i do make dessert but that is fun for me. We only go to one place though so it is easy. I love Christmas time more so for the decorating and lights. I love seeing Christmas through my nieces eyes. I make a few stops but it's mostly close by so not too horrible.

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  10. i hear you on all these things! especially the shopping and the gifts - which is why I started so early this year! i hate decorating and i hate christmas trees because my cats climb up them and ujsdfvjsdbfvzj it's so annoying. plus, being away from my country and my family SUCKS. and seriously, all the food for thanksgiving. i don't even like it, but i can't stop eating all the food. ugh. hate it. but there are things i do love - spending time with family (when i can, or inlaws) and i really do like gifts lol.

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  11. I've never been a huge fan of Thanksgiving. I don't like turkey. I'm the youngest in my family and everyone else older than me tends to hang out and I'm kind of left alone. At least now Michael comes to holidays with me (we trade off every year) but still, we just have to wait around for hours, then eat, then wait around more. Christmas is better because there are usually fewer people and my mom usually has more time to not just be prepping, so we actually get family time in.

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  12. What you said in your last statement about not buying any gifts and just spending time together is why I love Thanksgiving so much. I am a huge holiday person,I cant help it! I love shopping, decorating, baking, the music, the movies, everything about it! And I am with you, people will not shame me for Black Friday shopping. My mom and I have been going since I was 10 years old. We spend the entire day together, usually we shop for 15-19 hours straight, no joke. If people dont want the chance to have to work a holiday....dont work retail. I paid my dues when I was in HS and college having to work all the holidays. I knew when I took the job that is what I was going to have to do. you know?

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  13. I'm with you on just about everything you mentioned. I now do the Fast Freddie's 5-mile run in town on Thanksgiving morning and then take a ginormous salad to wherever we have to get to for lunch or supper. They can stuff themselves on all the carbs and I'll be happy with my salad and rolls (and plate of pumpkin and apple pies - sorry, not sorry). We've pretty much cut out all gift-giving to family members. The first few years were awkward but we have enough crap cluttering up our home that we don't want more "things" sitting around. Besides, my siblings and in-laws and we are all adults -- if we want something, we'll go out and buy it ourselves. Any gifts bought are for the kids and niece and nephews -- that's about it. Now we just gather for a nice supper and play games or chat -- much more relaxing and no gifts to worry with. I do go out shopping though -- especially if the deals are worth it and it is fun just getting out shopping.

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    Replies
    1. I always wanted to do Fast Freddie - maybe this year I'll do just that! :)
      That's exactly what Ricky & I say - we can buy anything we need or want, no one else needs to do it. I just want fun game nights too :) You have the right idea

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  14. I am sticking on focusing on the positives! It is SO easy to get wrapped in the hustle and bustle of it all, but so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate!

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  15. It's sad how stressful the holidays can be. We've pared down a lot and spend most of the holidays relaxing instead of stressing. I've learned I'm never going to please anyone...or most people, for that matter. I'm singing Frozen's theme song now..."Let It Go."

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  16. Men are absolutely SO hard to buy for! I can buy anything for my sisters or girlfriends, but when it comes to any man- I'm just clueless! You know I hear ya on the no santa surprises. Thankfully I have my 2 stepsons, so I have gotten to see a little bit of that, but it's not the same. Most holidays are geared around kids, so it is hard!
    As for eating too much on Thanksgiving- I do that too. I've just accepted that it's part of life, and I can't change it. :)

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  17. wrapping presents is the WoRST. i am awful at it and have no patience. bag it up!

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  18. Guys really are the hardest to buy for!! Buy me a plane ticket, I'll happily come wrap all your gifts - I know, I'm strange. Also, I'm right there with you about the over-eating. I do the same thing every. single. year.

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  19. Man, we are sisters! I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of turkey. Give me a plate of corn pudding & pecan pie & I'm good. This year we're not going to visit family - it's just too stressful because of Mike's teaching schedule. Every year we go to NC & every year we say never again. This year we're going on a cruise for our anniversary (December 15 - 25 years!), so we just told our peeps they'd have to do without us. We'll see them at Christmas.

    Speaking of, I asked my brother if it was ok if we didn't do gifts with him & my SIL this year. The kids only want money, so they're easy. But yes, buying for men is a pain!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, and Christmas just hasn't been the same since my mother died in 2005. We've never figured out how to do Christmas without her...

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  20. LOL I hear you on the over eating that is so me!!!

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  21. Agree with too many places to go and wrapping. I just want to laze around after a big meal... not worry about rushing to the next place in time. :/ And wrapping... well, I'm just awful at it. lol

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