Bah Hambug!!!
I hate Christmas. It is so stressful and I really do not enjoy the holiday. This year I just want it to be us. No in-laws, no parents, no siblings, nobody. Just the kids , Ryan and I. I really wish we lived far, far away from his parents so we wouldn’t have to feel obligated to go to their house on Christmas Eve. We never do anything when we go over there anyway. Just eat then everyone sits and watches TV. It drives me crazy. I hate the constant TV watching that his family indulges in. I always want to do something different, but I’m the only one that does. Everyone else is content to waste their lives in front of a screaming square box.
Christmas Day is just going to be us this year. No one else. I’m so sick and tired of entertaining… imagine that. I never thought I’d say that, but I am. *ugh* I used to love a party at my house at Christmas. Now I’m annoyed at everyone in Ryan’s family and at my mother. I won’t have to worry about my brothers showing up, cuz they always do their own thing.
I started feeling stressed out over Christmas in September when I went into Blockbuster and they had a fake Christmas tree up already! Walmart had some Christmas stuff out on their shelves at the end of September as well. September!!! That’s just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to early in my books! Why can’t stores wait until November 1 to put out their stupid Christmas crap. It just seems to get earlier and earlier every year and it drives me bonkers. If I drank, that would drive me to drink, just to calm my nerves.
These are the reasons I hate Christmas:
1. The gift giving. It can be so freakn’ expensive. It stresses me out as to what to buy someone, if they will like it, if they will need it and how much I spend on each person. I used to do a gift exchange with all my friends. Now that most of them are married with kids, I’ve just ask that it be reduced to a bake exchange. It just got waaaay too expensive. What if I forget someone and they give me a gift? Then I feel OBLIGATED to give them a gift back, when I wasn’t going to give them a gift in the first place. Then I have to go through the whole hassle of what to get, etc.
2. The decorations. My house is quite sparse normally. The kids destroy everything I own, so I don’t clutter my shelves with nick knack crap. I have a very open and nick knack free house. I also don’t have many pictures on my wall cuz my kids like to spin the frames on my wall causing them to fall and crash to the ground.
People who come to my house for the first time always ask this, “Did you just move in recently?”
“No.”
They always look surprised and comment on my lack of decorating that I do to the house.
*sigh* Whatever. I’ll never be a Martha Stewart of home decorating. Why deal with the stress of things being broken or keeping the kids away from it? It’s not worth my energy. So therefore I don’t decorate.
At Christmas however, I have 10 huge Rubbermaid bins full of Christmas decoration and nick knacks that I put out all over the place. I hate putting it up, so I procrastinate and boxes sit around in my living room for what seems like forever. Then I hate having to put it all away again at the end of Christmas. It’s such a pain in the ass. We once had our Christmas tree up till the end of February. Friends made fun of me, but I really didn’t care. Some even say that we left the tree up until April. I don’t recall that , but obviously they do and remind me of it every year. Whatever, again I don’t care. I hate taking stuff down that badly.
Ryan and I have an arrangement now. I’ll put up the Christmas decorations and he’ll take it down… and that usually works… sometimes. It depends on our moods if either of us feels like putting up or taking down. If I don’t then the house doesn’t get decorated until a week before Christmas… sometimes not until a couple days before. Ryan sometimes won’t take it down until middle of January. Whatever. I just hate the process.
3. There’s never any snow around Christmas. It drives me crazy! For some reason, right around Christmas a Chinook blows in and melts all the snow. Then there’s a yucky brown all over. I don’t feel Christmasy when there’s no snow! One year it was so warm that golf courses opened on Christmas Day! I want SNOW for CHRISTMAS! It’s not Christmas unless there is snow!
4. Money. There never seems to be enough of it around Christmas. That probably is my biggest stress of all. I always have these grandeur ideas of what to get everybody, but have to compromise to fit the budget. Drives me batty. I really want to get everyone I know something and it makes me feel like crap because I can’t.
5. Ryan always buys me something stupid. I have a list that I put out for him, but he REFUSES to buy stuff off the list. Instead he goes out and gets me stuff that I DON’T want and end up returning anyway. He just needs to stick to the list. I don’t care about the surprise element. Yes, I surprised. I’m surprised it’s something stupid! I just want the stuff on my freakn’ list! I never buy stuff for myself, so when I get something I want it to be something that’s ON THE LIST!!! Seriously! Is that too hard to ask?
He never pays attention when we are out and I coo over something so therefore I make a list for that very reason. Why he doesn’t understand the ‘get me a gift off my list’ concept is beyond me. *sigh*
Bah Humbug… I hate Christmas.