<p>My favorite day of the year. The DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS> House guests are gone, hubub is over, D is here,lots of time to read my new books and there is still plenty of chocolate and red wine in the house (for the anti-oxidants, of course!),</p>
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<p>I did not read this whole thread and never intended to imply I do not like Christmas. </p>
<p>It can be a love/hate relationship, but the love rules!!</p>
<p>Morrismm–loved this thread, and also love Christmas.</p>
<p>I am not a big fan of the day after Christmas. Mess everywhere - leftover candy, boxes, assorted gifts that haven’t gotten put away, leftover candy, gifts that need to be returned, leftover candy…</p>
<p>I feel a little guilty, because at this point in the whole thing I really wish everyone would leave the house for a few hours. If you met me, you’d never think I’m an introvert, but I really need time alone to recharge and since the kids have already been out of school a week, it’s been pretty much non-stop interaction. Throw in a few sleepovers and a family Christmas party, and I’m toast. </p>
<p>I started this tradition a few years ago of giving everyone new pajamas on Christmas eve. I bought the boys stuff at Aeropostale, and I ordered dh’s from Land’s End. Everyone really liked them. They liked them so much that they put them on Christmas eve and wore them all day Christmas day. I love those days when we can all hang out in our jammies together and the doorbell isn’t ringing. But–and as Pee Wee Herman says–everybody I know has a big but—BUT when dh was still wearing his jammies today at noon, well, really?!? I was happy to come home from the grocery and find him wearing clothes.</p>
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You are a good neighbor! Was the woman down the street’s daughter her only child? How very sad…</p>
<p>The few days before Christmas always find me in a grumpy mood. I feel that I don’t get any help, except for dh (and he waits until the last few days). I wish he would give me some help with gifts for his side of the family!</p>
<p>We went to 9 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass, where S2 was a lector. Since they were short of lectors for the next day, he and I also went the next morning to the 9 a.m. Mass, for him to read again. Gifts were opened after we returned from that Mass, around 10:20 a.m. My parents (local) came over for Christmas dinner. </p>
<p>Yesterday was a nice quiet day. Dh and I went to the closest mall, and I got my half-price calendar for next year and spent my Bath and Body Words gift card.</p>
<p>Lafalum - YES! One thing I love about the Christmas season (and I am NOT a Christmas-hater!!) is just after New Years when I put all the decorations away. When the tree goes down, the “stuff” is put away, and I reclaim my house!! I always feel some relief when every thing is neat and tidy once again, and I don’t have to worry about what my dogs are going to get into next!</p>
<p>As the OP I want to echo the sentiment that this thread was intended as a place to vent during the holidays. I don’t think any of us hate Christmas and that showed in every post. I think it helped me enjoy the holiday more by having a place to go and feel validated and have a laugh or two.</p>
<p>I also love returning the decorations to their resting place and every year I swear I am going to be more organized when putting them away so that I can find everything next year. Somehow it never ends up that way, though.</p>
<p>The first of January signals a return to “ordinary time” for me. Every year I plant paperwhite bulbs in a dish of glass beads and watch them sprout in my my window. It signals a new beginning, a fresh slate and a reminder that spring is inevitable. Happy holidays everyone!</p>
<p>EPTR - thank you for starting this thread. We love Christmas but the ONLY thing I have to say we dread is arranging get-togethers w/my in-laws. There is ALWAYS an issue. FIL and MIL are divorced so if we get together at her place, he’s offended. DH hates to drives long distance all where they live so we invited them over here. (We drove to them for Easter and Thanksgiving this year.) After saying yes, DH’s siblings changed their minds and decided to go to the sister’s place.<br>
So, we stayed home and invited my family instead. My widower dad promptly decided to tell us that he’s remarrying :)…this is good news…</p>
<p>I feel hear you, lilmom.<br>
My family always comes to our house for a day together a few days before Christmas…works out great, quick and painless.</p>
<p>The in-laws ordeal is another matter. They can’t travel. FIL is in a nursing home. MIL insists we come on Christmas day or FIL will be so disappointed. I don’t think he cares. He would be happy to see us any day. MIL has made it known that she dislikes Christmas and all the extra stuff associated with it but acts like the world will end if we don’t show up on Christmas day.</p>
<p>So on Friday (Christmas day) we drive 6 hours in pouring rain to get there.
Had not been there an hour before I hear MIL muttering “I wish everyone would come on and eat. I can’t wait for this day to be over with”. We drove 6 hours back home the next day. I try to think of it as an endurance challenge.</p>
<p>I talked with my wife and next year we are just giving the grandkids small gifts and going back to doing more Giving Tree type stuff. Middleclass kids just have too much stuff. They don;t need anymore from us.</p>
<p>Blah…I hate these days after the holidays. Kids are scattered with their friends, nothing but clean up and chores around here. Already feeling like they go back in a week and they barely spent any time with me. Most of it was spent with friends…I know it’s supposed to be that way and they are supposed to grow up. Somehow this holiday season is worse for me than when the youngest left for her freshman year in September and her brother went back cross country for his senior year.</p>
<p>i love the whole holiday season. i hate the sadness i start feeling knowing that my kids are going back to school. maybe worse this year as my youngest is a college senior–and who knows what fortunes may come his way next year–or where he will be–or if he can ever stat at home for more than a day or two. it kills me to think about that.</p>
<p>^^^barrons, I agree. I’ll need to post a reminder for myself to not get caught up in a buying frenzy next yr. </p>
<p>We really didn’t go overboard but I feel that we have much more than we need. DH and I talked about hosting an open house and collecting toys for the less fortunate. DD’s youth group in church sponsored a family and presented gifts to them this Christmas. I wish I had used that experience as a springboard to another giving project.</p>
<p>If I already told about this…sorry, just a little brain dead after all the festivities. We did a great gift exchange this year. (23 of us). I drew the names and everyone had to buy, make or find a gift that matched their persons initials valued from zero to 5 dollars. It turned out to be great fun. Here were some of the gifts ideas. SH = shoe horn, JL = jar of lights, AW = afro wig, TS = two socks. I took a lot of grief on the front end from my in-laws for this gift exchange, but it was basically free and forced everyone to think creatively and have a little fun. Plus, everyone got to open a gift so I didn’t feel obligated to get a little something for each person.</p>
<p>So another side of this Christmas “thing” is when it’s all over. The things I’ll try to change next year or I need to vent about are-- </p>
<h1>1 I do not like you folks that take down your tree, etc. the day or two after Christmas. FGS, the season is suppose to be through New Years.</h1>
<h1>2 We were so excited about them coming home. Now they are driving us crazy. But we will feel so blue when they go back to school.</h1>
<h1>3 We really should have had more contact with (insert here)…via cards or a party or a visit or whatever.</h1>
<h1>4 The kids seem to leave their gifts right where they found them on Christmas Day unless I hound (ie yell at) them to remove them.</h1>
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<p>I must be feeling “fussy” as I just made the general announcement that gifts still remaining in the location where they were unwrapped must be unwanted gifts. Soon I will pick them up and see that they get returned so that they can become the beloved possessions of someone who really wants them.</p>
<p>Deja, I would be a better neighbor if I stopped in to see her more often. This woman’s oldest daughter (in her early 30s) was killed about 6 months ago. She does have another D a few years younger (who was at their house with her husband and their toddler when I stopped by). The daughter who died was married, but no kids. My neighbor is having a rough time, since it is the first Christmas. When I came to the door with cookies, she gushed about the great photo of my two Ds on our card that I sent earlier in the week, but I immediately felt guilty, as I am sure that type of card only reminds her of what she has lost…</p>
<p>On a much more mundane topic, my least favorite thing about Christmas is finding a place to store any new stuff that arrived. Most unusual gift this year: a 100 foot extension cord from my dad. I thought he might be giving me a weed whacker, as we had discussed the merits of electric vs. gas powered ones a few months ago and I said I wanted one. But no… just the cord. In case I get one, I guess. And… a lecture on the phone from him when I called to thank him about safety when using a weed whacker (which I still don’t have). :)</p>
<p>Oh… and my ex-H gave me a present (!). Just an amaryllis bulb, but I have no idea why he would do that given the general animosity that exists the other 364 days of the year.</p>
<p>intparent, could be worse… my sibling received a card from her ex MIL. She has been divorced for years… The card was addressed Mrs. Bob Smith…ha…funniest thing ever.</p>
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<p>That sounds like more fun than what we did.</p>
<p>We did the “First Annual Xxxxx Family White Elephant Billy Mays Memorial Gift Exchange” this year. Had to be under $20 and “As Seen on TV”. In protest of the clutter that we felt this would generate (excessive clutter is a hereditary battle that the younger generation has been fighting for years), my brother, husband, and I all bought high-discount TV DVD collections to exchange, just to start some arguments and buck the system. We ended up bringing “The Vicar of Dibley,” “Are You Being Served?” and “M.A.S.H.: Season 6”. I still ended up taking home a set of Hercules Hooks and a “painless hair remover” (seriously, it’s just fine-grit sandpaper, manufactured by 3M and everything. Not recommended).</p>
<p>Someone got the Magic Bullet blender so we promptly went to the kitchen to make mudslides and all got completely shnockered. Then we all went upstairs and played Rock Band: Beatles while the kids played with their toys.</p>
<p>Ah, the holidays…</p>