“It just doesn’t feel like Christmas this year!” I’ve found myself saying this for the last few years. There is something about Christmas that gives feeling and emotion, whether that is excitement for presents or for spending time with family or having time off from work or school or nostalgia for old times.
This is the first December in years that it has felt like Christmas. Last year my family and I didn’t give each other any presents and went on a cruise. It was a fabulous trip and we had a great time, but there’s something wrong about listening to a comedian and visiting a casino on Christmas Eve. It just wasn’t the same. The year before that was my first Christmas out of college, so it felt short since I didn’t get a three week winter break. It also was our first Christmas not in our 22-year old home, and we were penniless as my parents were intensely paying off debt so it didn’t feel like Christmas at all.
This December, however, I finally have the Christmas Spirit. It started at Thanksgiving, which was traditional and like old times with 20-some family members filling up my parents’ home. My sister, J and I even braved the crowds on Black Friday. The weekend after Thanksgiving, I went with J’s family to Asheville to finally meet his aunt, uncle and cousins. We visited the Grove Park Inn, which was gorgeously decorated for the holidays. It has been unusually cold for North Carolina and even snowed a few days! J’s family took us all to see A Christmas Carol in downtown Raleigh and it was so fun to get dressed up and watch a classic play I used to see when I was a child.
When I think of where I was two years ago–in a brand new relationship with J, struggling to get my bills paid in an expensive new city, traveling hours to see my family for just a few days–I am so overwhelmingly thankful I am in a place where I am so close to the ones I love.
What about you? Do you have the Christmas Spirit this year? What are you thankful for this holiday season?
YAY! I’m so glad that you feel the Christmas spirit. I bet next year will be even better – the first Christmas you’ll be married. =)
For me, it’s the weather that often does it, and it’s been chilly out lately (for Arizona!) and so it does feel Christmas-y. I think this is because I lived in the midwest as a little girl, and so Christmas was very aligned with cold.
Glad you’ve got the Christmas spirit :)
I’m totally NOT feeling Christmas this year. It seems like every year that goes by I think more and more about kids who DON’T get the Christmas experience that I had as a child. And it just depresses me because Christmas should be mostly about children. I don’t need or really even want gifts, and these kids who are being helped by charitable organizations ask for Christmas presents like a dress to wear to church or pajamas. It just depresses me. I know we can’t fix everyone’s lives, but Christmas should be a time that we give to those who are less fortunate, not a time when we pile on the presents for people who already have enough. :-/
Wish i could get myself into the Christmas mood, but for some reason it,s just not happening. Maybe next year.
Have a great time.