Work is insane, which is not cool for this time of year. Why are people in the office? Why are people sending me urgent emails? It's three days before Christmas, you crazies!
Oh, and you know what sucks about holiday cooking/baking? It requires ingredients. That you have to purchase outside of your home.
There is also the cost of stamps to be annoyed by. I love to send cards, especially Christmas cards, even if I finish sending them around the time we all start thinking about Valentine's Day. But we spent nearly $45 on stamps alone this year. THAT IS INSANITY. And the more stamps cost, the grouchier post office employees get. That's an official fact. Check Wikipedia.
Then, my god, there's wrapping a gazillion gifts when alllllll that lovely paper is going to end up in the recycling bin in a couple days. There's fielding really crappy presents from well-intentioned friends and family. Well of course Kyle needs a pair of size 5T swim trunks! Why wouldn't he! Oh, and you can't remember where you got them? How charming!
There's driving places and flying places with half the world in your lane/on your flight. And no one is smiling. And half the people are texting and not paying any attention to where they're going.
It can be an awfully stressful "most wonderful time of the year," am I right?
But.
I have a job, I have money to go to the grocery store with and family to bake/cook for, and a long list of people I love to pieces who belong on my Christmas card list and Amazon Prime made holiday shopping relatively painless this year and people love my kiddo, even if they don't know what my almost-two-year-old would like for Christmas. (Heck, the almost-two-year-old doesn't know what he would like for Christmas because the almost-two-year-old doesn't quite know what Christmas is.)
It's easy to spiral into an endless whine cycle because there's always plenty to whine about, but let's all resist. For now. For a little while.
Because. It's Christmas. The holidays! We get an extra couple days off, and an extra shot of something in our coffee, a little time with those people who may drive us to drink in the first place but who are still our family, for better or worse, and no one really minds if you go back for a third helping of dinner or a fourth cookie because caring about carbs is sooooo for January and right now, in December, it's the time to realize how unbelievably, wholly, and completely lucky we are.
And we are.
(Hey, act surprised if you get this in the mail in the next couple days!)
Happy holidays from my crazy family to yours.
I'm so glad to know you.