At Kinko’s the poor folks who work in the branch now have to answer the phone: “Happy holidays from FedEx Kinko’s, this is ______, how may I help you?” The bad part is that they started doing this around Halloween, the worse part is that it actually is the holiday season. I’m not a grinch, or I try not to be. However, I usually get a bit stressed this time of year. When I was young, before my mom passed away, the holidays were easy. I generally switched off years for Thanksgiving between mom/dad (parents were divorced) and I always did Christmas Eve with dad’s family and Christmas day with mom’s. Now it is much more complicated. I don’t really keep in touch with mom’s family, but I have dad’s, step-mom’s, and the woman’s families. Worse yet, some of Kathi’s family lives out of state. So in recent years, it might go like this: Thanksgiving is often a nightmare. Brunch with dad and afternoon with Kathi’s. Two Thanksgiving meals in one day. One a year is enough… For Christmas, there is still Christmas Eve with dad. But now, there’s later on Christmas Eve with step-mom. Christmas day is generally Kathi’s dad’s side of the family and sometimes a separate event the same day for the immediate family. Usually the weekend before Christmas is with Kathi’s mom’s family, which is the out-of-staters. So we might be around here one year, might be in the northwest Chicago burbs another year and might be near Iowa the next year. Beyond that, there’s another Christmas event for very very close family friends of Kathi. So right there we are looking at 6 events for one holiday. Good thing we generally avoid company Christmas parties. Needless to say it’s rather stressful trying to make all this work. It becomes less about love and hapiness and more about time management. Did I mention that Kathi’s b-day is December 26th? Throw in another event.
So this year we’re pretty much saying screw it. Thanksgiving is kind of a mess, as people have moved and others are travelling. We don’t want any part in it and are just using it as an excuse to have a 4 day weekend. Christmas is better yet. We’ll still be roped into the out of state event, which is cool because I usually get booze as a gift. Last year it was a bottle of Grey Goose (very nice!). For the actually Christmas time frame, we are going halfway across the country to get away from it all. Kathi’s sister lives not far from San Diego and isn’t coming home this year. So Kathi and I are going to her. Spending 4 days/3 nights out there with no big plans, no commitments, just relaxation and lots of it. We’ll land after Christmas when the dust has settled and be able to go back on with our lives as if it were any other time of year.
I hate to sound so apathetic about this season, but after so many years of shuffling around from one family gathering to the next, it is quite a relief to just get away from it all for a change. I’m definitely looking forward to it.