There are a few things we need to remember as the Christmas season revs up. Living through the season is the goal … not attending every event, not buying a present for everyone in our address book, not eating some of everything in the buffet line.
Get serious folks, we are in the midst of one of the most horrible pandemics in the history of the world, and some of you are worried that the lights on the neighbor’s house look better than yours. I know, my house would look better with some twinkly lights around the edges. The new neighbors have some darling multicolored lights, the family across the street completely lined the edges of their roof with perfectly spaced white lights, the man on the corner wrapped red strings of lights around a big tree out front, and three weeks late, I got the tin-foil wreaths out of my basement and hung them on my porch.
One time, twenty years ago, my girls were home from college, and I talked them into hanging lights. The lights looked great, the girls were back to talking to each other by Easter, and we threw the lights away after the wind blew the strings of lights all over the neighborhood on Christmas Eve.
Even at twenty-years-younger, I was not stupid enough to climb up on that ladder and hang lights myself … and I’ve gotten even smarter. So, with the neighborhood glittering and gleaming, I did not go to the expense of hiring someone to decorate. I have learned that if you keep your mouth shut and your porch light out, no one will notice.
This pandemic thing has had me a little down. I probably should have pulled up the big boxes of decorations and really put on the dog, but no one is coming to see it. I don’t have any little ones who are going to be looking for sugarplums under my tree, and the older grandkids are so busy that they will not notice … nor will they be allowed to come visit. You see, I am Elderly. I am immuno-compromised. And I have managed to stay away from Covid 19 for nine months, and one turkey and a pecan pie is not worth ten days in ICU. So, we’ll Zoom or Facetime, or something.
Thanks to my social secretary, Amazon Prime, I have mailed Christmas presents to everyone who is on my list. My list is short this year. I can remember one Christmas when we bought eight presents for each girl. I know it was eight because on Christmas Eve, we counted and realized one girl was short one. So, we ran to the store and picked up something cheesy.
There have been times since I became a grandmother, that’s I’ve bought totally useless gifts for the kids: clothes that don’t fit, boots which, although purported to be “in style,” weren’t, and games that had so many pieces their mother “accidentally” threw them away with the wrapping paper.
My daughters and their husbands would prefer picking out their own gifts. So, that’s easy. The teenage granddaughters are catching on to this idea and will be thrilled with gift cards. The little ones will get gifts mailed directly from the Amazon warehouse, and my friends and other relatives will probably forget that I got them something last year … so why worry them this year?
Don’t get in a frazzle over the holidays. If we could all get a vaccination for Covid by July, then we could start planning for Christmas 2021. Then we can plan on eating too much, hugging each other, singing in the choir, and shopping for things no one needs. Stay safe.
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