The Holidays are Sucking the Life Out of Me!!!!!

How is it something can be so wonderful for some and so much work for others?  Thing 1 and Thing 2 think that this is the time of year is the best ever, as it should be.  Here in Mom-ville it is our busy season, this is the big league.  Only a seasoned professional can survive with only a few melt downs (I don't mean the kids). The kids love it all, decorations, parties, the traveling, and of course the presents.  What they don't understand and no kid does, is that this magical time of year is carefully orchestrated.  I started preparations the day after Thanksgiving.  Dates, menus, guest lists, the works.  I spent 2 hours cleaning eight nights of wax off of 6 menorahs.  Why 6 menorahs?  God forbid anyone should share, and you have to be prepared for guests. Why didn't I do this last year?  After eight days, I was so over it.  Chanukah is the ultimate Groundhog Day holiday.  For eight nights you light candles, open presents, make thanks you calls, and eat Latkes.  Sometimes it even goes on longer.  We relive it when we visit Grandma.  Chanukah has the power to transcend all confines of the calender.  Yippee more stuff for the spoiled children.  I'm sure that the intentions of the Maccabees when they defeated King Antinochus was, wouldn't this be a great way for kids to get stuff.Food is very much a part the Groundhog Day festivities.  For some of our Christmas friends it is ham and egg nog.  For the Jews it's Latkes.  These fried bundles of love, are quite challenging to say the least. Thing 2 is very upset that we are not making our own, I order them.  He made them in class and just doesn't see what is so difficult.  Well for starters I don't have 18 children peeling a billion potatoes and grating onions.  I also don't possess a clean up crew that will be cleaning oil off of the kitchen cabinets for the next 4 months.  

I remember my mother shopping in august for the holidays so she could avoid the rush.  She was a brilliant orchestrator.  Times were different back then, they didn't have super duper coupons.  It is the temptations of the sales that send me to fifth avenue one week before Christmas, fighting the tourists buying snow globes.  Martha Stewart was no where to be found.  It was a simpler time back then, dip in a sour dough loaf was so innovative.

As a mom, I long for the days when dip in a pepper was special, and could count on the ugly sweater from the aunt that didn't realize you weren't six anymore.  Those days are long gone, they have been replaced by over functioners just trying to get by.

Comments

[Mom]

I'm so impressed that you thought I was a great orchestrater of organizing the holiday shopping. You do remember the number of people I had to shop for. The Hutter clan with their awful taste and the gifts that were too ugly to re-gift. The best was the gift of a cigarette lighter, when I had quit smoking 2 years before but no one seemed to notice.
I'm sure you remember the hiding of the gifts and playing hot/cold to find them. I was always astounded by your ability to know what was inside a wrapped gift by the mere shaking of the box. Still can't figure out how you managed to do it.
Now it's your turn to carry on the family traditions.

[Longwayfromny]

wow you summarized it! You sound as pissed and annoyed as me. I'm so tired of the pressure to make chanukah and Xmas as special as the other families- and on tv! The kids think it's Santa clause and Chanukah elves. It's gotten to a point that you can't enjoy it- it's all about did you finish shopping? Did you start shoping? What party are you going to? In these economic times , I just want to crawl under the covers and wake up in June- just in time to worry about July 4th festivities.