High Hopes for a Holiday Season All-time Low
The girl and I went out a couple nights back to look at Christmas lights. Now more than a few things are disappointing me about Christmas this year leading inevitably to my less than festive attitude about the whole season. But I do have my kids for the even years, and my mom and step-dad are making the trip to the arctic east (from Arizona…home of “60 degrees! Holy crap that’s cold!”) so I’m trying my best to kick start my normally geeky-about-Christmas side, hence the Christmas lights.
Well, first off, normally my radio pre-sets are adjusted to holiday music around this time of year. I hadn’t gotten around to that yet, so as the girl and I set out to find some pretty holiday decor, I searched the dial for some carolling. No luck. WTF?? No Christmas music? No carols? No kids’ holiday cheer? *Hrumph* So much for setting the mood. (disappointment #1 of the night…)
Then we find some lights. Yea!! One house. But wait…there’s another one…one…one… What is with this place? Two weeks until Christmas, and there is only a scattering of houses with lights on! Ok, keep it together…we headed to the big, nice, semi-hoity-toity neighborhoods in the area. They must have lights there! Nope…an even more sparse scattering. *hrumph* The girl was frustrated. I was frustrated. So we headed home, cranky, and watched Wall-E instead. (disappointment #2 and 3 of the night…)
AND I was attempting to quit smoking…so much for that. The frustration, the driving, the cranky little girl in the back seat asking every 2 1/2 seconds where the lights were…too much for me to handle. So I bought a pack on the way home, and had a pre-Wall-E smoke. (disappointment #4 of the night…)
It’s hard to believe, but back home, in the deserts of Arizona, where snow is a freak occurrence that may last all of 20 minutes, literally, there is more Christmas cheer. Every year, there are at least four radio channels dedicated to only Christmas music from mid November through mid January. Every year, there is Winterhaven…a sorta-ritzy neighborhood which holds a clause in its HOA bylaws that says if you live there, you have to, have to decorate your house for the holidays. They have horse drawn carriages, or shuttles you can pay to ride on through the neighborhood, or you can walk free from the worry of personal vehicle traffic (except of course for the residents). There are donation boxes at every house and all proceeds are given to some organization like Toys For Tots, or an equally Christmas-y spirited group. They sell egg-nog and cookies and hot chocolate in stands along the way. (The only possible worry while you are there is maybe stepping in horse poop) It’s a magical, Christmas-y, cheerful place…in the middle of the desert…at 60+ degrees…How is it that these desert dwellers have more Christmas spirit than the cold-weathered folks I live among now? *hrumph* I miss home.
So the “spirit” is still evading me. Even shopping has lost its once bright, shiny luster for me. I still have hope for the season, as Christmas is still two weeks away, and the kids will both be here soon along with my mom and step-dad. I still have hopes…
